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I don't think it's so much about hiding debates as not seeking them out if the other side isn't arguing in good faith. In that regard, conspiracy theories like
by saghm 3y ago
I don't think it's so much about hiding debates as not seeking them out if the other side isn't arguing in good faith. In that regard, conspiracy theories like the earth being flat are a good litmus test that a debate isn't worth the time or energy; if you can't reach common ground with someone on well-established, non-controversial facts, there's no point in trying to debate them about more nuanced topics.
- brutusborn 3y agoTo the contrary, I’ve seen experiments falsify flat earth theories where the dogmatists suddenly are forced to rethink their views. If you don’t have these experiments or debates, you have 0% chance of changing people’s minds. At least give them a chance.
- majormajor 3y agoExperiments disproved flat earth literal ages ago. So you're saying not just "do experiments on crazy theories" but do them forever in perpetuity?
- jonhohle 3y agoAgree to a debate when they have disproved the experiment and provided reproducible proof. Better yet if they can get it peer reviewed (though that can be hard when you’re challenging “the system”).
- brutusborn 3y agoBarely better, the replication crisis and other problems in academia have shown that peer review doesn’t work well. It is a band-aid solution to the demarcation problem that simply doesn’t work. I wish more people would read Lakatos and do reviews using his research programme paradigm. It’s the most reasonable solution we have. Alternatives like peer review are just window dressing.
- DharmaPolice 3y ago>So you're saying not just "do experiments on crazy theories" but do them forever in perpetuity? Yes? When I did science at school we repeated various experiments to prove various Newtonian principles. I'm pretty sure those are settled matters but still useful to demonstrate for educational purposes.
- majormajor 3y agoI'm very doubtful that there'd be no flat-earthers if they'd all gone to schools that did experiments to demonstrate the earth was round instead of simply describing those experiments in their science and history books.
- bombcar 3y agoThe guy who killed himself trying to build a homemade rocket to see the curvature of the earth for himself is a scientific hero, in a way.