This piece by Dan Rather is a good example of the motivated reasoning that has poisoned the discussion over covid origins, and ironically a very unscientific approach. Whether science is under attack or not should have zero bearing on investigating how the pandemic started.https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1406611921256828930 …
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The one thing that science is supposed to be best at—updating beliefs based on new evidence—is something we've consistently failed at all through the pandemic. The mantra of "believe the science" revealed itself as just an argument from authority dressed up in a lab coat.
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The problem I see is that process has itself been perverted in the political realm, via “I’m only asking questions!” as a disingenuous way to make claims or to obstruct. So when someone like Stewart or Rather engages in this, it’s loaded in a way actual scientific inquiry is not.
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This attack on questions that lead somewhere you don't like as self-evidently in bad faith is one of the new social media dynamics I really dislike. It moves every discussion from substance to intent—this person is asking for a bad reason, so we should not engage them.
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It’s reminiscent of Dawkins/Harris/Pinker et al arguing forever that science will save us, positing that values (and thus policy) can be wholly derived from science. It’s a deadly mistake. Science is always directed by and constrained by values, like it or not.
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There's no values component to establishing how covid originated—it's a factual question. What we do with that information once we have it is where the values discussion begins.
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Yeah. This current mood that certain questions are immoral to ask, because an answer in the affirmative would undercut a preexisting moral stance, is incredibly pernicious. You're starting to see it in healthcare, biology, etc.
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