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Are you saying that people who check facts believe they are the single source of truth? Why would you need to check facts if you were the source of truth? Woul

Are you saying that people who check facts believe they are the single source of truth? Why would you need to check facts if you were the source of truth? Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that the fact checkers believe that there is an external source of truth (i.e. facts) which they are checking?

gunapologist99 5y ago
> the fact checkers believe that there is an external source of truth (i.e. facts) which they are checking? Ah, yes. I believe you are referring to the CDC.
- SquishyPanda23 5y ago
  I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but the CDC doesn't see themselves as a single source of truth. They defer to the scientific consensus of people who specialize in understanding how viruses work, how pandemics work, and who have a process for learning facts by interrogating reality.
  - landemva 5y ago
    They defer to the scientific consensus of people who specialize in understanding how PLANET ORBITS work. Consensus brought us an earth centric solar system and low fat heart healthy grains with an obesity epidemic and rampant heart disease.
    - intended 5y ago
      Consensus also brought us showers, I suppose. The rules of the road? I mean, I suppose the opposite of consensus is tyranny. It sounds like your problem may be that people sometimes get it wrong, and not consensus or its opposites?
    - majewsky 5y ago
      The irony of your statement is that you can only make this accusation now because the scientific community did not stop there and diligently continued working to improve the consensus.
    - SquishyPanda23 5y ago
      lol, what are you talking about dude? Science converged on heliocentrism as quickly as it possibly could once we had instruments precise enough for heliocentrism to be the simplest model. The only reason the Earth-centric system overtook previous heliocentric theories was that it was most consistent with observable facts. Do you have some other system you'd like to propose that ignores observable facts? Maybe you'd like to consult a Shaman? The obesity epidemic isn't created by science, it's created by economic and food policy. The root problem is essentially the same one as with Facebook: scientific information gets crowded out because people stand to profit from misinformation. Seriously, what alternative to science are you suggesting? Political populism? Let a bunch of outrage-addicted conspiracy theory junkies determine the truth with no regard to whether it matches reality? Do you really think there's an alternative system that better arrives at the truth than making and checking your predictions against reality?
native_samples 5y ago
The people who check facts, empirically at least, believe there is a single source of truth on any topic and see their role as guiding people towards it and/or whacking people who are talking about a topic but not considered that single source. Very few fact checking organizations appear to actually use critical thinking of any kind. They claimed they would be but they're just journalism interns normally, so they just degrade to assuming that whatever the government or ideologically aligned academics say, is the truth, and anything else is wrong.

gunapologist99 5y ago

> the fact checkers believe that there is an external source of truth (i.e. facts) which they are checking? Ah, yes. I believe you are referring to the CDC.

SquishyPanda23 5y ago
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but the CDC doesn't see themselves as a single source of truth. They defer to the scientific consensus of people who specialize in understanding how viruses work, how pandemics work, and who have a process for learning facts by interrogating reality.
- landemva 5y ago
  They defer to the scientific consensus of people who specialize in understanding how PLANET ORBITS work. Consensus brought us an earth centric solar system and low fat heart healthy grains with an obesity epidemic and rampant heart disease.
  - intended 5y ago
    Consensus also brought us showers, I suppose. The rules of the road? I mean, I suppose the opposite of consensus is tyranny. It sounds like your problem may be that people sometimes get it wrong, and not consensus or its opposites?
  - majewsky 5y ago
    The irony of your statement is that you can only make this accusation now because the scientific community did not stop there and diligently continued working to improve the consensus.
  - SquishyPanda23 5y ago
    lol, what are you talking about dude? Science converged on heliocentrism as quickly as it possibly could once we had instruments precise enough for heliocentrism to be the simplest model. The only reason the Earth-centric system overtook previous heliocentric theories was that it was most consistent with observable facts. Do you have some other system you'd like to propose that ignores observable facts? Maybe you'd like to consult a Shaman? The obesity epidemic isn't created by science, it's created by economic and food policy. The root problem is essentially the same one as with Facebook: scientific information gets crowded out because people stand to profit from misinformation. Seriously, what alternative to science are you suggesting? Political populism? Let a bunch of outrage-addicted conspiracy theory junkies determine the truth with no regard to whether it matches reality? Do you really think there's an alternative system that better arrives at the truth than making and checking your predictions against reality?

native_samples 5y ago

The people who check facts, empirically at least, believe there is a single source of truth on any topic and see their role as guiding people towards it and/or whacking people who are talking about a topic but not considered that single source. Very few fact checking organizations appear to actually use critical thinking of any kind. They claimed they would be but they're just journalism interns normally, so they just degrade to assuming that whatever the government or ideologically aligned academics say, is the truth, and anything else is wrong.