Thank you, @DKThomp for doing the unpleasant work of documenting (a fraction) of Alex Berenson many many (I can only conclude deliberately) wildly misleading and flat-out-false claims.https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/pandemics-wrongest-man/618475/ …
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It's an interesting case because I'm wary of labeling things misinformation too quickly. Science is much wider than whatever scientific authorities have digested at the moment, and freewheeling and yes, even acrimonious debate goes with the territory.
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But there's clearly a line between people having (heated and rancorous) intra-science debates, and are flat-out attempting to mislead, misinform and misrepresent. That line is hard to tell if you are not steeped in the field, and someone is deliberately pretending to be former.
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Replying to @zeynep
"intra-science debates" - can you define this term more explicitly? This sounds a lot like gatekeeping to many people.
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Replying to @iAmLoserStar
Science is necessarily some level of gate-keeping (you want antibiotics that work or a snake-oil sellers giving you a menthol vapor for a bacterial infection?). The gate has to be not too narrow and the process transparent, though.
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Replying to @zeynep
Thanks- just seems unclear where along the spectrum the gate should be placed; there's a massive grey area. What seems problematic to me is that so many have chosen a place and become dogmatic about it. Of course Berenson is on the wrong side of the spectrum.
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Yes and I think we should not be too quick or just rely on authorities, but clearly it exists. Thorny.
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