4 ms·

This is just completely untethered from science and reality. The standard of discussion is shockingly low here.

kelseyfrog 4y ago
It's obvious if you've been through a CSci program. Math, Physics, EE, and CSci are real science and Psychology and Sociology aren't. That means that topics that fall under Psychology and Sociology domains are inherently invalid and rather than retreating to a position of simply unknowing, "hard science" types feel justified in framing their personal experience as reality, science, nature, and fact[1]. I don't blame the tendency; we all want to believe what we're doing is important, but when it involves stubborn indignation, it's a maladaptive behavior. 1. To the point where these words end up being sensitive and specific to identifying the group.
- howinteresting 4y ago
  I'm primarily talking about medical science (including clinical psychology) here, not "psychology" in general. You can certainly make the argument that medical science isn't as "hard" as physics, but clearly medicine generally works. You can also make the argument that gender-affirming care doesn't have RCTs behind it, but there's no way to have an RCT that (a) isn't immediately unblinded because the physical effects of HRT are obvious within days, and/or (b) isn't a gross human rights violation. So we rely on supposedly (but not actually) "low-quality" observational studies instead. For example: https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/research/gender-affirming-care/ https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/research/gender-affirming-c...
iaml 4y ago
[flagged]
- the_only_law 4y ago
  Well, this isn’t particularly new, so yeah it might be time to pack up.
  - iaml 4y ago
    Nah, it got much worse during this last year.
    - howinteresting 4y ago
      Yeah. I think the increased salience of this issue has caused a lot of nerds to believe they can figure it out with 15 minutes of armchair thinking rather than spending weeks engaging with the scientific literature (which is all quite readable!)

It's obvious if you've been through a CSci program. Math, Physics, EE, and CSci are real science and Psychology and Sociology aren't. That means that topics that fall under Psychology and Sociology domains are inherently invalid and rather than retreating to a position of simply unknowing, "hard science" types feel justified in framing their personal experience as reality, science, nature, and fact[1]. I don't blame the tendency; we all want to believe what we're doing is important, but when it involves stubborn indignation, it's a maladaptive behavior. 1. To the point where these words end up being sensitive and specific to identifying the group.

howinteresting 4y ago
I'm primarily talking about medical science (including clinical psychology) here, not "psychology" in general. You can certainly make the argument that medical science isn't as "hard" as physics, but clearly medicine generally works. You can also make the argument that gender-affirming care doesn't have RCTs behind it, but there's no way to have an RCT that (a) isn't immediately unblinded because the physical effects of HRT are obvious within days, and/or (b) isn't a gross human rights violation. So we rely on supposedly (but not actually) "low-quality" observational studies instead. For example: https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/research/gender-affirming-care/ https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/research/gender-affirming-c...

iaml 4y ago

[flagged]

the_only_law 4y ago
Well, this isn’t particularly new, so yeah it might be time to pack up.
- iaml 4y ago
  Nah, it got much worse during this last year.
  - howinteresting 4y ago
    Yeah. I think the increased salience of this issue has caused a lot of nerds to believe they can figure it out with 15 minutes of armchair thinking rather than spending weeks engaging with the scientific literature (which is all quite readable!)