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DC Reade's avatar

No, it's more about someone who's actually paid their dues to obtain expertise in the scientific field being discussed than it is about people on the sidelines taking cheap shots.

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DC Lovell's avatar

Lots of varied opinion from the "experts", so much so that you have to pick which ones to "believe", and thus we have uncertainty.

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DC Reade's avatar

It would indeed be interesting to hear out a debate on these questions between microbiology PhD Brian Hanley (the poster to whom you responded) and someone of equivalent professional expertise who holds different opinions on these questions. Presuming that such people exist.

Instead, once again I find myself stuck with reading self-satisfied mockery from clowns who feel entitled to disregard someone's knowledgeable observations out of hand, while impugning their motives.

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Skutch's avatar

They all got cancelled and scared off by the attacks they got.

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Skutch's avatar

Go read the OP and tell us again about how he was taking shots. He opened up the discussion by generalization, straw manning, and stereotyping. And stop you boot licking while you're at it please.

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Skutch's avatar

In a field that relies upon financial support through grants that instantly go away when you rock the boat you mean ?

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Galleta's avatar

Oh please. The unwashed masses choose not to be ruled by you superior geniuses who devote your lives,unselfishly, to our wellbeing.

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DC Reade's avatar

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that тАЬmy ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.тАЭ Isaac Asimov

That's only a small part of Asimov's 1980 essay, which he presented as an editorial column. He goes on to say

"What shall we we do about it? We might begin by asking ourselves whether ignorance is so wonderful after all, and whether it makes sense to denounce "elitism." I believe that every human being with a physically normal brain can learn a great deal and be surprisingly intellectual. I believe that what we badly need is social approval of learning and social rewards for learning. We can ALL be members of the intellectual elite and then, and only then, will "America's right to know" and, indeed, any true concept of democracy, have any meaning."

A hopeful note.

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Skutch's avatar

Funny thing is the "cult of ignorance" aren't the people who led us into the fucked up mess we're currently in where life and reality are a commodity to be bought and sold by the highest bidder.

Education is all well and good for the masses but the elite don't want to give up their socioeconomic advantages.

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HiggsBosonSlut's avatar

тАЬIf the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?тАЭ

тАХ Frederic Bastiat, The Law

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DC Reade's avatar

You're (yawn) projecting an awful lot of inferences that aren't present in my comment.

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