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He shouldn't need to hire a fact checker. He just needs to realize that his error rate is too high when he just tosses off these historical claims based on his
by pdonis 4y ago
He shouldn't need to hire a fact checker. He just needs to realize that his error rate is too high when he just tosses off these historical claims based on his own background knowledge, and stop doing that. If the claim is really central to the argument, then take the time to check it. If it's not that important, then just leave it out.
Unfortunately, public intellectuals in our current society don't hold themselves to these kinds of standards (which would have been considered obvious for public intellectuals a couple of centuries ago), and no one else holds them to it either.
- thebooktocome 4y agoHe's not a public intellectual and he doesn't want to be. But people treat him like one regardless, because he happened to attain a little clout as a "Rationalist".
- pdonis 4y agoHe doesn't get to decide whether he's a public intellectual. If you publish your thoughts and ideas about issues that are of interest to the public, you're a public intellectual, whether you like it or not. Even more so if many people read what you publish, discuss it, and give it weight.
- solveit 4y ago> Unfortunately, public intellectuals in our current society don't hold themselves to these kinds of standards (which would have been considered obvious for public intellectuals a couple of centuries ago) Have you read anything a couple of centuries old? The problem was, if anything, much worse!