4 ms·

Might as well since reason, facts, and logic don't seem to be working.

• sanderjd 12y ago
  In my experience, this sort of intellectual smugness is one of the main causes of people on the other side ignoring reason, facts, and logic. They get the picture loud and clear that people think they are too dumb to understand things and that they're being talk down to, and it makes them far less likely to believe the facts. This is the same problem that the climate change movement has. People who say "it is not plainly obvious to me that this is what's going on" and are scoffed at for being stupid are much more likely to listen to somebody who says "no, you're not stupid, here are some (potentially incorrect) facts that confirm your point of view". The fact is that these complicated sciency thing are not at all obvious and those who can should be doing the hard work to convince people who don't have the time or ability to study this stuff themselves, rather than just thinking people who don't inherently trust the "right" scientists for their expertise are stupid.