The most despicable thing about bad theory is that to really know if it's bad, you first have to study it thoroughly.
Ick.
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Most threats in life are of the kind where, if alarm bells are ringing, it's either time to act or already far too late.
But notionally bad, actually good theory is superficially similar to bad theory in a lot of cases, so you risk false positives w/shallow readings.
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So all bad theory pertaining to something important is potentially a huge time/resource-waster.
While refusing to risk wasted time leads to stuff like the whole germ theory debacle back in the day - astounding findings are frequently punished, rather than rewarded.
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Media and ideologically captured zealots alike tend to present processes of idea formation and paradigm shifts as linear or else disjunctive.
The actual process is a gross mess on par with other evolutionary mechanisms. And fitness doesn't always reflect worthiness.
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