Re:Why “Trusting the Science” Is Complicated
by forgotmypw17 on Wednesday October 13, 2021 @06:21PM
(#28858351)
You're correct that institutions are imperfect, just like individuals...
But there is another factor here: trustworthiness or credibility.
If an institution or an individual is caught more than once being dishonest, putting their agenda above the truth, etc., should they be trusted again, or should anything they say or do be treated as a curiosity and thought experiment at best, until it is agreed with by someone credible and trustworthy?
How are you to convince a flat-Earther that the world is round? You can show photos of Earth taken from the moon, but clearly you have to trust NASA. You can show global flight traffic patterns that only make sense if the Earth is a sphere, but then you have to trust the FAA or wherever you're getting the airline data. You can dig up whatever evidence you want but at some point you'll need them to relinquish their skepticism and accept that these institutions are not part of a vast conspiracy to hide the shape of the Earth. Now apply that to vaccines, climate change, election results, economic theory and everything else that matters.
Institutions are imperfect. They have their own agendas and sometimes they happen to be wrong, and sometimes they flat out lie. If you only trust people that you like, you're liable to fall prey to charismatic charlatans. If you demand absolute certainty, you'll never get past a bedrock reality of cogito ergo sum. You have to make some sort of reasonable balance between trust and skepticism and accept that sometimes you'll be wrong.