4 ms·

This “trust the science” attitude is a massive failure of science education. Science should empower people to understand things themselves so they don’t need an

by _yb2s 2y ago

This “trust the science” attitude is a massive failure of science education. Science should empower people to understand things themselves so they don’t need an appeal to authority - while also setting high standards for what it really takes to have an informed opinion. Instead you get people that claim to be “pro science” that understand nothing deeply, and will attack anyone who dares to develop a deeply informed opinion on their own. If they really understood scientific thinking instead of attacking, they could ask questions to see if the person with the controversial opinion took the time to deeply understand by e.g. studying the scientific literature, or if they just believed a conspiracy meme on Facebook. When I’ve shared controversial opinions, especially on here- I’ve been attacked and ridiculed by these people, despite citing my reasoning and evidence. If I mention I am an academic PI that is widely published and known in the field they will switch their tone- but if it is my official titles rather than a sound argument that convinces them, they don’t get science at all.

cryptonector 2y ago
I refer to that as 'credentialism'. It's a terrible social ill.
- _yb2s 2y ago
  There's more to it than that, but I'm not sure what to call it- it also seems to include an absolute religion-like faith in, e.g. the absolute correctness of positions from official organizations and current scientific understanding. Even if a scientific researcher or medical doctor has an informed opinion based on new data that differs from mainstream recommendations - even when it can clearly be demonstrated that those recommendations simply haven't been updated yet for new evidence, they will attack that person also. I used to call it 'scientism' but someone else on here in a recent argument pointed out to me that scientism really just means that you believe that science can in principle be used to understand anything if you do it correctly- which I agree with.
  - cryptonector 2y ago
    Credentialism is about the appeal to authority. It's true that they then dismiss authorities they don't like or agree with. There's no good name for this whole phenomenon, not yet.

by _yb2s 2y ago

cryptonector 2y ago

I refer to that as 'credentialism'. It's a terrible social ill.

_yb2s 2y ago
There's more to it than that, but I'm not sure what to call it- it also seems to include an absolute religion-like faith in, e.g. the absolute correctness of positions from official organizations and current scientific understanding. Even if a scientific researcher or medical doctor has an informed opinion based on new data that differs from mainstream recommendations - even when it can clearly be demonstrated that those recommendations simply haven't been updated yet for new evidence, they will attack that person also. I used to call it 'scientism' but someone else on here in a recent argument pointed out to me that scientism really just means that you believe that science can in principle be used to understand anything if you do it correctly- which I agree with.
- cryptonector 2y ago
  Credentialism is about the appeal to authority. It's true that they then dismiss authorities they don't like or agree with. There's no good name for this whole phenomenon, not yet.