Conversation

Good analogy. I’m always exhausted by crackpots dumping evidence on me I’m not competent to evaluate and which looks like it will take me 6 months to even behind doing my “own research” with.
Quote Tweet
What the crank is doing is ultimately a lot more condescending—the equivalent of giving a child a fake cell phone so they can “make calls” just like mom & dad. They’re pretending not to ultimately rely on trust, and so they get trust.
Show this thread
3
64
Replying to
I really don't think this is true at all. "Do your own research" really can get you a long way. Yes, including shallow reading, so long as you understand that you don't know it all right away.
3
7
Replying to
Umm… you have a PhD and afaict bring at least that level of effort to your research reading outside your field. I don’t think 99% of lay people could do even approximately what you do without at least some of the training you’ve benefitted from.
1
6
Replying to
I mean, yes, I'm educated, realistically not everyone will be able to do what I do. I still think that "do your own research" is more respectful (even when it's targeted at people who probably won't) than "just listen to me, I'm one of the Elect."
1
5
Replying to
The condescension and noble lies seem to come mostly from bureaucrats not researchers. I can’t think of any active researcher who has the “one of the elect” posture. Mostly they just seem to struggle to communicate at all with laypeople.
Replying to and
I mean, people are really insecure about shit. So even just using jargon you’d use with peers is viewed as condescending or attempts to intimidate. But 90% of the time it’s that you can’t think of an immediate way to translate a concept without misleading or dumbing down.
6