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It sets up an endless amount of "legitimate" strawmen that any side knock down to delegitimize/"debunk" their opposition. So the media plays a role in this too.

It sets up an endless amount of "legitimate" strawmen that any side knock down to delegitimize/"debunk" their opposition. So the media plays a role in this too. But I do agree that at least one of the main problems is that academics have the ability to sift through research while others don't. So better self policing and an easier way for the public to digest the information is probably what's needed here. I think the problem here is that the public don't trust the scientific community to self police. >Further, the criticism of academia as being full of egg-headed elites who are completely disconnected from the public need has been around for decades - far longer than the current systemic funding and tenure problems. I think the internet and social media just really took the mask off for a lot of people. The tribalism probably kicked into overdrive when they can just look researchers up and actually confirm that the scientists are part of their outgroup.

UncleMeat 5y ago
> So better self policing and an easier way for the public to digest the information is probably what's needed here. I'm not sure that better self policing is a good idea. I think we want academics to be exposed to a sea of research, much of which is half baked or has big flaws. Preventing the "probably wrong, but maybe something is here" papers from being discussed limits the ability to actually make big things happen. There is simply an education problem where laypeople (and media) have decided that peer review is something that it has never been and a huge amount of misunderstanding (deliberate or accidental) of the scientific community derives from this. > I think the internet and social media just really took the mask off for a lot of people. The tribalism probably kicked into overdrive when they can just look researchers up and actually confirm that the scientists are part of their outgroup. I think this is definitely true. When TPUSA can basically publish an "enemies list" of academics they don't like the end result is a stream of harassment.
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UncleMeat 5y ago

> So better self policing and an easier way for the public to digest the information is probably what's needed here. I'm not sure that better self policing is a good idea. I think we want academics to be exposed to a sea of research, much of which is half baked or has big flaws. Preventing the "probably wrong, but maybe something is here" papers from being discussed limits the ability to actually make big things happen. There is simply an education problem where laypeople (and media) have decided that peer review is something that it has never been and a huge amount of misunderstanding (deliberate or accidental) of the scientific community derives from this. > I think the internet and social media just really took the mask off for a lot of people. The tribalism probably kicked into overdrive when they can just look researchers up and actually confirm that the scientists are part of their outgroup. I think this is definitely true. When TPUSA can basically publish an "enemies list" of academics they don't like the end result is a stream of harassment.

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