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Hot take: The absolute scientism of the left (lacking all nuance on scientific issues) is just as harmful as the anti-science rhetorc of the right... science is nuanced, remove the nuance and all you have is dogma.

@freemo "Don't question the science". That's the f&cking point of science, to question everything in pursuit of the truth. The left often weaponizes science, the the Church did so long ago. If people didn't question the science, we would still believe that we are the frickin' center of the universe.

@freemo Please show the bar graph illustrating that it's just as harmful, as opposed to, say 10% more or less harmful.

Be sure to include a bar for all harms. And yes, i mean every harm that ever existed or ever could exist.

@obi Hey look its great to be open-minded but at the same time dont be so open-minded your brains fall out.

@freemo Or someone will help them out lol

> anti-science rhetorc of the right

Strawman created by politicians and the media. But that's what happens when you question the ordained "experts" and accepted scientific institutions.

@freemo What's an example of "leftist absolute scientism" that's just as harmful as, say, making up shit to discourage people from getting vaccinated?

@rudyschwartz I dont really mind answering this.. but can you even invision an answer of any kind that wont result in some toxic interaction where you start calling me names and for daring to say anything bad about liberals... funny enough i expect just as much toxicity if i answer the person on the right who just objected from the other side.

@threalist Its not the qwuestioning thats the issue, its the level of stupidity and absudity that "questioning" often takes.. much as the left being equally absurd in the opposite way (refusing to recognize the nuance of some topics).

@freemo @obi

Being open-minded, i.e. receptive to new ideas, and sawing a brain-sized hole in your skull and leaving it that way are notably different things.

(Also the brainstem is physically rather tough so your brain would probably not fall out even so, though you almost certainly would get an infection and die in pretty short order.)

Question everything!πŸ‘

@unit13

I wouldnt go that far (unless we are questioning things just to learn where our gaps are)...

Ther eis a happy middle ground where well established scientific facts are kinda absurd to question wholly (the earth is flat, there is no human cuased global warming, etc)... but then there are plenty of things worth questioning, the lefts treatment of many COVID topics for example, which is clearly a topic too new for there to be much of any settled issues. I mean yea if you say COVID doesnt exist your an idiot, but if you question if we need to wear masks for decades on end and if it will fix the problem, thats probably an ok question to ask.

@obi

@freemo What are you talking about, the Earth is flat. Read a book. @unit13

> its the level of stupidity and absudity

Again, in the case of examples where this is true, it is because they are amplified and entire narratives are created and echoed across every spectrum of the media. The same levels of "stupidity and absurdity" exist on the left they dont get exposed and amplified by the media.

@freemo Yes, I can imagine it. But you didn't answer the question.

@rudyschwartz Ok, im willing to test it out then...

Just a few years ago my city was on fire, literally the skys were black, homes, business and government buildings were burning because of riots that were almost entirely fueld by liberal absolutism.

Yes I can think of quite a few things the liberals have done that has caused a great deal of harm due to absolutism that lacked any nuance.

@threalist I agree the media amplifies this shit, but its hardly the only source... I have seen countless examples of the right exemplifying how they are represented int he media... hell I saw my own uncle (someone who used to be very science minded) turning into a raving lunatic.

@freemo My only problem with the Climate Change subject isn't the question if it's happening, it's the lack of real world solutions, and movement of responsibility from industry to individuals, who probably make up 5% (just a guess) of carbon emissions. @unit13

It would seem you're the idiot. Covid-19 never existed. Watch the video. You are just another ignorant sheep in the pasture. Listen to the man carefully. Educate yourself.

https://tv.gab.com/channel/unit13/view/covid-19-does-not-exist-607602d0bf7a4ce7b09f3568

@unit13

Thank you for being the Q.E.D. of the day.

@obi

@obi

That is a very valid concern and can think of many exemples in that regard that prove your point.

@unit13

@freemo That's pretty vague, actually. Which city was this, and which liberals were fueling the riots with their "leftist absolute scientism"? Please give an example of the scientism in question.

@rudyschwartz It was more an example of general absolutism than one specific to science., so perhaps not the best example.

@rudyschwartz @freemo my city once totally asploded because of lack of nuance. You need 50mg nuance/day really if you don't want your city to asplode and catch fire and be all librul

The whole vaccine industry is based on fraud. I have documents to prove this as well.

@unit13

Hahaha, I could not have asked for a better response to prove my original post... really, thank you.

@obi

It's the midwit meme

One of the strongest features of the human brain is pattern recognition. We do it without trying and we do it very well. People recognize bs and they aren't necessarily trained or skilled (or have the resources) at building a thesis then working through research and expressing arguments. So your uncle sounds like a lunatic because he is experiencing the cognitive dissonance between patterns and the official narrative, and he probably isnt good at describing or explaining.
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@threalist no it isnt his lack of explanation, it is the absolute absurdity of his arguments. Usually complete fabricated and uneducated by generally in line with some aprty line (like thinking global warming doesnt exist or other ludacris shit like Obama's birth certificate stuff)

@rudyschwartz @freemo
I live in Portland, OR. Whenever I talk to my mum in New England she asks me about the terrible riots and murder-death-kill happening all around me. I tell her it's one side of one block in downtown, one night a week, when both the Patriot Prayer MAGAs and the news cameras show up at the same time, and hasn't happened at all for like a couple of years. Finally she gets frustrated with me and says "you're the only person I know who says that." I reply, "I'm the only person you know who lives here."

@freemo dogma is worse than no dogma, true. But not all dogma is equal, some are legitimately worse than others. If an individual doesn't have the time or inclination for serious inquiry, I'd prefer them to be dogmatic about supporting a self-correcting process for uncovering truth than any specific text (2000 years old or newer)

@freemo
Nah.

@freemo @rudyschwartz wtf, science does not have nuance, at all.

@pinkyfloyd @rudyschwartz

If you are going to troll try a bit more subtlety.

@rudyschwartz
maybe hand-picking scientific results, presenting them as "the final truth" to excuse ruining livelihoods with executive emergency rulings?
@freemo

@bonifartius

Which liberal practitioner of scientism are you quoting, who said something was "the final truth"?

@rudyschwartz @freemo

@ceoln
that quote was more quoting a line of thought.

forcing vaccines on people using being shoddy trials by the manufacturers as reason. ignoring all papers with findings contrary to that as irrelevant - like mrna being transcribed into dna. too many absolute statements when what has been said should've been "we don't know for sure".
@rudyschwartz @freemo

@bonifartius

You can't really quote "a line of thought".

I don't think that it's been a significant trend on the left, or in medical science, to for instance ignore certain papers as irrelevant; it's more that, as science always does, there was a rough consensus on how to interpret a set of results that were not entirely consistent, and then there was a (very messy, again as always) attempt to make public health policy informed by the science.

Certainly there are people at all points in the political space who do not understand, or who ignore, the nuances of important science. But I don't see any evidence that it's a specifically "left" thing.

@rudyschwartz @freemo

@ceoln
i won't go through news archives now to deliver the perfect quote to you, that's a losing game.

i read enough from german politicians, most from the left, who used wordings awfully close to what you'd read in days i thought long gone by. the few sane voices of the left spectrum were cancelled, like wagenknecht. those politicians now even use legal trickery to have archives of these things they said removed, as that would be a "list of enemies".

we had completely new technology roll out in less than a year. used without all the usual long term studies, still politicians - again most often from the left - touted things als completely safe. after AZ was shown to create problems, it was a totally unexpected whoopsie, except for the people who know that things can't be sped up.

other things are pushed as the truth and are used to push laws as well. the whole gender shenanigans are put onto a podest of science while it clearly is a philosophical issue, not a technical. it's not even that there is no problem, but the whole way of thought is inhumane. the left has an affection for technicratic solutions, so it's the only way they know to reason.

politics in general is corrupt bullshit, but the left manages to make it evil on top of that. your classic conservative is usually interested in the money, people on the left are out for venegance.
@rudyschwartz @freemo

@bonifartius

Um, okay, I'll take your word for it.

I hope you'll also believe me when I say that I'm on the left, and I'm not out for vengeance. I hope I'm also not evil! :)

@rudyschwartz @freemo

@ceoln
this is a page collecting the things which were said, it's in german though, and not very usable unfortunately: https://ich-habe-mitgemacht.de/

few show their evil until handed power. so the only way is to remove governmental power, which i never have heard anyone on the left really arguing for. even the anarcho-communist people want to round up others, at least from what i've seen.
@rudyschwartz @freemo

@freemo
Can you expand on that a bit? I’m taking it to mean that many on the left have a somewhat blind belief that all the products of science are benign. Or perhaps that if somebody supports their argument with data, that you must automatically agree with them.

An example would be wearing masks. The data support that masking greatly reduces the transmission of a lot of diseases, including COVID-19. That said, there are still a number of choices to be made at the level of a society and the individual. Might I be okay with risking some restaurant visits unmasked even during a peak of transmission? How do we balance keeping the economy going with the costs of various measures of fighting a pandemic?

A lot of it comes down to what value you attach to human lives at the policy level, I think. I don’t think it is wise to simply throw up your hands and say that every human life is priceless and any risk is intolerable. I also don’t think that we should take a Darwinian approach to things and let the death tolls mount beyond a certain level to support β€œfreedom.”

I don’t think an absolute answer really covers all situations. That nuance that you mentioned is very important.

@IAmErik It came from a thread/conversation earlier that day.. To summarize I basically said β€œYes masks do reduce the spread of the disease, but dont ever expect them to eliminate it, COVID is likely here to stay”… they were very beligerant because I dared to suggest masks might not be perfect…. basically it was a generally science informed stance (masks do have an effect) but it lacked nuance (rejected the idea that masks arent so effective as to be a cure)

@freemo @rudyschwartz Cops murdering Black Americans has caused riots my entire lifetime. I'm 56. We should really fix that.

@greenhombre

Agreed, the murder that sparked the riots is a criminal injustice, and I am happy about the fact that the cop who did it got jail time...

That said the destruction and violence int he riots are no less immoral because of it.

@rudyschwartz

@freemo @rudyschwartz Agree. Property destruction makes no sense to me as someone with property. But it might make sense if I was part of a historically targeted minority that wasn't even allowed to acquire wealth due to 80 years of redlining.

@greenhombre

1) Who said property damage, we are talking about excessive violence, and more than property was caught in the cross hairs of that.

2) As a native american myself and thus a member of a minority, NO! violence against tens of thousands of innocent people that had nothing to do with the events in no way even remotely makes sense.

@rudyschwartz