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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   25232 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 30, 2023

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I don't think this is a locally unpopular position. Experts are good and useful. When I want to know something about how magnets work, I look up standard expert material rather than consulting Insane Clown Posse. When I'm curious about whose work Picasso built on, I trust that art historians are basically telling me the truth to the best of their abilities, and that even if they're wrong, it's much better information than I would get by doing my own research. Most approved vaccines are reasonably safe and basically work. I want engineers to work on bridges, experienced dentists to work on my teeth, and historians to tell me about ancient wars.

OK, so what? Should the above make me think that the issues that I think the experts are either biased or incompetent are actually just Settled Science(tm)? There are significant areas that I think the experts have missed very badly on and I don't think there's a unifying reason why other than the power of groupthink and incentives encouraging intraprofession compliance. I think public health people are wrong about low-sodium diets because they make recommendations that they think will help the lowest common denominator, for example. That's not a conspiracy, it's a tendency.

My impression is that most people here have broadly the same thinking. Lots of expertise is good and helpful, some is fake and [lame], some is used maliciously and dishonestly. Sorting out which is which takes some doing, but I'm not going to ignore the latter two categories because of the existence of the first.

I don't think this is a locally unpopular position. Experts are good and useful. When I want to know something about how magnets work, I look up standard expert material rather than consulting Insane Clown Posse. When I'm curious about whose work Picasso built on, I trust that art historians are basically telling me the truth to the best of their abilities, and that even if they're wrong, it's much better information than I would get by doing my own research. Most approved vaccines are reasonably safe and basically work. I want engineers to work on bridges, experienced dentists to work on my teeth, and historians to tell me about ancient wars.

Yeah.... about that...

Most of us are not going to watch a video. Can you please explain your argument?

Title: 'Been Here From the Start' song | Horrible Histories: Black British History | CBBC

If nothing else the tune is catchy. At first I thought it was a parody video, but it looks to be a real BBC music video about Black British History.

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