Perhaps with hindsight, we should not be surprised that this information age that we are living in would produce overconfidence among some people who take what they see and/or read on the internet too seriously. Indeed, we have seen in this day and age a rise in certain kinds of knowledge, particularly knowledge that buttresses our own interests and/or prejudices. And when politics has become a mere extension of our societal obsession with entertainment at all costs, then you can bet that disinformation based on slanted political views will follow. Really, when you think about it, we should not have been so surprised to see this trend happen and have such a huge impact on our country, and our world, or the rise of celebrities to prominent political positions. It should have been regarded as an inevitability, an eventuality that, frankly, we should have been better prepared for.
Among the biggest shock waves that is continually felt in the United States come as a result of people who betray their science illiteracy, but somehow, amazingly, mistake this failure to grasp science as an argument against science. It still amazes (and frankly, also depresses) me that this works apparently so damn well in the 21st century, when we have mountains of evidence to buttress scientific theory as fact. Facts, such as the reality of evolution, which some simply refuse to accept. Facts, such as climate change being real and caused by human activity, which again, many people simply refuse to accept.
Then again, why should anyone feel surprised? Yes, Darwin's "theory" of evolution is hardly brand new, having come out over a century and a half ago now. Even climate change/global warming is not new, with some of the first inklings dating back to the early part of the 20th century. Hell, there are still people out there who cannot accept that the Earth is not flat, and make apparently serious arguments trying to prove that, in fact, the Earth is flat, even though we have known better now for literally centuries.
So today, I happened to see not one, but two quotes via Twitter that, I felt, kind of put science deniers on the hot seat. At least it would, if those who actively engage in science denial would bother paying attention and scrutinizing their own theories as much as they scrutinize the theories which they obviously are not scientifically literate enough to understand. Of course, that requires self-reflection, as well as some measure of humility, which is something that, frankly, is not a strong suit in our current egomaniacal society.
Still, these two tweets feel like they are worth sharing. For full disclosure, since I want total transparency for this particular blog entry, I should note that I do not have an active Twitter account. There used to be a Charbor Chronicles Twitter page, but it has not been active now for something like seven or eight years. Still, these somehow came across my Facebook account, and they definitely felt worth sharing. So here they are:
The first one is by Matt Blaze, and I wish more people would understand this line of thinking. This specifically seems targeted at the lack of scrutiny by the religious minded, versus the trend towards openness towards correcting one's thinking that is more often evident in science:
matt blaze @mattblaze
"When people say "The reason you can't trust science is that scientists used to say <thing that turned out to be wrong> but now they say <different thing>", they're actually explaining why science works so well."
2:57 PM · May 4, 2021
533 Retweets 32 Quote Tweets 3,330 Likes
https://twitter.com/mattblaze/status/1389655445019766785
The second one is more targeted towards the MAGAlomaniacial mindset that seems to think that watching a few Youtube videos uncritically can indeed derail the entire edifice of the scientific community, and that watching said videos automatically qualifies one as an expert:
Health Nerd @GidMK
If you're not an expert but you think you've destroyed the entire foundation of a vast scientific edifice with 10 minutes of Googling, you might want to consider the possibility that you could be wrong
ترجمة التغريدة
٥:٠٢ م · ١٣ يناير ٢٠٢٠
٢١٣ إعادة تغريد ٣٠ تغريدة اقتباس ٧٠٥ إعجابات
https://twitter.com/gidmk/status/1216842875226349568?lang=ar-x-fm
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