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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.
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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."
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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.
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And the line is rarely trotted out around highly individual conditions. The phrase is usually deployed alongside crackpot theories of shared problems, advanced where trust has eroded. “They lied about masks so vaccines contain 5G chips” type leaps.
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Replying to and
Indeed. I resent that I have to do literature reviews to have a chance that interacting with the medical system will not harm me. "Do your own research" is not a general solution, or even a good individual solution. However "trust experts" can be even worse as a general solution.
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