2017-12-17, 12:49 PM
(2017-12-16, 09:32 PM)Mediochre Wrote: [ -> ]When people beat down the opposition and dismiss them all as quacks and conspiracy theorists it only exacerbates the issue. Making "experts" legitimately dumb and uninformed about their own fields, which makes them no longer experts in peoples eyes. Growing the divide even more.You are conflating two different things. There are areas of controversy and concern in any field. Quacks and conspiracy theorists are beaten down because they misinform themselves and others about areas of controversy and concern. In particular, they manufacture controversy where none really exists, grossly misrepresent existing controversies (when they accidentally manage to identify a real concern), and present false and misunderstood information.
I have no problem whatsoever with informed opposition. Medicine and science thrive on that. I have a problem with people who are determined to make themselves and others dumb and uninformed.
Take "Vaxxed" for example. They make a big fuss about a supposed conspiracy to cover up a connection between vaccines and autism with respect to a specific study Thompson was involved in. And they showed a bunch of testimonials about kids whose ASD was expressed at some point during the immunization schedule. But a disagreement over a minor technical issue is not a conspiracy to cover up. And the study in question, even including the analysis which was left out of the original paper, shows that all the parent testimonials they were offering were mistaken. It showed that there was no increase in autism associated with MMR for any (boy, girl, vaccines on time or not) kids who were white, no increase in autism for any (black, white, boy, girl) kids who had their vaccines on schedule, no increase in autism for any (black, white, vaccines on time or not) girls. The only group which had an increased prevalence of autism were black boys who received their vaccines late. And unsurprisingly, this small group also happened to have an increased prevalence of known risk factors for autism, such as low birth weight. Take away the known risk factors (using birth certificate information), and there is no longer an increased prevalence of autism in this group either.
Encouraging people to become informed about serious and legitimate concerns is a good thing. Pointing them towards movies and websites that offer misinformation does not achieve that.
Linda