Until COVID came around and unearthed the absolute hoards of dO yOuR oWn ReSeArCh imbeciles. Now the sensible practice of getting a second opinion and exploring other options/doctors has been mixed up with the kooks: extreme politics and actual conspiracy theories, to the point where it’s hard to take any of it seriously.
When someone now says they don’t trust doctors, you have to dig deeper to understand if it’s someone genuinely seeking out other options, or if it’s one of Those People who’ve gone off the deep end.
For example, Western health authorities used to be absolutely certain that viruses could not be airborne (outside of very specific medical procedures), even though they did not have any good reason or evidence to back that up: it was just an old idea that happened to fit in with their priors, so generations of experts kept parroting it until horror unfolded.
God didn’t do it
Gravity is the curvature of spacetime
Things are not attracted to the planet through static electricity
Covid is real
Vaccines work
Rich mother fuckers do NOT have our best interests at heart
Intelligent aliens have not visited earth
People are called conspiracy nuts for being conspiracy nuts. Not for “taking less trodden paths”. Getting real tired of the HNs new “wahh wahh, we’re such major victims for believing stupid shit and being called out on it!” And just trying to paint it as “less trodden paths”.
It’s impossible to take anything in your post seriously because it’s entirely conspiracy theorist copy pasta.
“I’m the victim here for daring to believe the earth is flat and we’re being lied to by the governments, who’s engaged in a massive conspiracy that’s millions of people large, and costs more than the planets gdp to keep alive so as to convince people that’s gods not real”
You’re being called a conspiracy nut because you are one. The only victims are the people in shouting dictance of the bullshit spewing from your mouth.
Similarly, I will certainly and absolutely NOT stop calling out conspiracy theorist propaganda just because conspiracy nuts don’t like it.
If you don’t like being called out for posting conspiracy propaganda, don’t post it, and don’t defend it.
So go away!
You went ham on someone sharing a comment about their son's dentists. Maybe touch grass and stop being so angry, eh? The only conspiracy 'nut' here is you, who is inserting themselves by going "look at me, look at me" at someone sharing their experience.
>I will certainly and absolutely NOT stop calling out
I feel sorry for everyone in your family who has to suffer this.
It is never used in the spirit of promoting insightful discussion.
Instead it is used to shut down a line of inquiry in its tracks. It’s like calling someone an anti-semite.
It is used as a soft form of censorship, to disqualify the mere idea of engaging in the specifics of an argument.
If someone dismisses a comment by implying it is a conspiracy instead of offering a substantive rebuttal of why the comment is mistaken, it reduces the quality of the entire community.
I think we can do better, but more people need to call out this bad behavior.
I reserve the right to dismiss low-quality posts with a low-quality answer. And yes, that's a judgement call. There is no way around that.
People get called conspiracy nuts when they make big claims with no real evidence. That is the opposite of 'science and exploration'. The difference is always evidence. Go on a conspiracy site and ask for hard evidence of anything and they will get very upset.
Humans don't have a full understanding of everything, and in fact it's quite the opposite, in that we don't understand almost everything. Almost all paths are untrodden. It's fine to look where others haven't and come up with your own theories and ideas, as long as you retain a healthy skepticism and back things up with data as much as you can.
Science and exploration should not use fear of social reprisal as a guide.