Re:Scientist finds early virus sequences that had been myste...
by AmericanChopper on Thursday June 24, 2021 @08:06AM
(#27616372)
Personally, I’d generally consider blaming outcomes that you don’t like on people exercising their freedom to think for themselves too liberally to be a particularly low-effort criticism. You should always be skeptical of everything, you should be especially skeptical of people who claim their credentials place them above scrutiny. This is the very basis of critical thought, you can never have enough of it, and people being free to think for themselves is the most fundamental form of liberty.
Re:Scientist finds early virus sequences that had been myste...
by unishark on Thursday June 24, 2021 @10:26PM
(#27626525)
Seems to me like experts are just following the herd advocating the things most politically palpable. For example, the public likes travel restrictions, and (a sizeable subset of them) become viciously outraged over herd immunity, so whatever scientifically-based policies countries had previously are dropped under the guise of supposedly learning more. Yeah they learned better how to keep their jobs.
That will depend on a per country basis. In the ones i followed there were no lies, only revisions in guidance based on better knowledge of the situation.
> The appeal to authority is a logical fallacy in the first place, and “expert” credibility is (rightly) at an all time low.
Yes, and that's how we got shit like Trump and Brexit, because people are "sick of experts" and decide to yolo it for the guy screaming the loudest. Guess what, that doesn't work, and you're much better off listening to experts, and evaluating what they're saying, rather than ignoring them and going with the village idiot. Experts can lie, be frauds, have conflicts of interest, etc. but their reputation and credibility are paramount. Which politicians or talk show hosts, because that's apparently who people take their pandemic guidance on, are credible?
> I would suggest the best advice is to treat everything you hear/read with a healthy dose of skepticism, especially in regards to people who rely heavily on their credentials to deflect criticism
And by having everyone doubt everything, you end up with people believing in Q shit in Germany. Skepticism is critical, but too much of it just creates chaos.