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Come on, they are both equally morally reprehensible as they erode trust in science and lead us towards darkness. Ends doesn't justify the means, the road to he

• elil17 3y ago
  I don't like either but they will never be equal in my mind. Person A sees someone torturing a dog and kills them out of indignation. Person B is a hitman-for-hire who doesn't know who he's killed or why. Are person A and B really morally equivalent?
• the_gastropod 3y ago
  If they deliberately skewed their results to fit their narrative, yes: that's obviously reprehensible. That's not what we're talking about, however. We're talking about what level of suspicion is appropriate in various scenarios. It's unlikely we can _know_ if results were purposefully sabotaged or not. We have to make some best guess. Interested parties funding studies is deeply suspicious, and should be treated with a hefty dose of skepticism. Hand waving that "maybe the researchers were motivated by empathy?!" is not at all equivalent. That is a incredibly low bar that, itself, undermines trust in science, as one could trivially make up similar excuses to distrust virtually any study ever conducted. Oh, researchers found declining sources of fresh water year over year? Biased. They probably just like cheap drinking water. Better ignore it. An Aquafina-backed study shows the opposite. That study is biased, too. But they're both equally morally reprehensible.