In all seriousness, I find it very interesting what has happened in the last few years, to a large degree because of the growing availability and accessibility of the internet and the popularity of social media. This trend of people questioning and distrusting well-established, over several centuries repeatedly and continuously tested, reviewed and updated, scientific truths, is quite fascinating and frightening at the same time. What I see is basically a retrogression from the natural sciences back to some kind of pseudo-philosophy.
In the past, before the scientific revolution, people didn't have most of the instruments we have today to do proper research, so what they mainly relied on was language, reason and arguments. Now, despite having all the tools, instruments and technology, a lot of people, to a large degree maybe out of laziness and the false comfort of sitting behind a computer?, are so easily fooled by pseudo-intellectuals on the internet. On one hand their "standard of proof/evidence" seems to have grown, because the evidence provided by the scientific community is "not enough" to convince them, but on the other hand their "standard of proof/evidence" seems to have fallen, because they so easily believe the flawed arguments, weak rhetorics and pseudo-evidence of random guys on Youtube. The troll-culture adds fuel to the fire.
Why are images released on Youtube more convincing than images released by NASA? An average dude on the internet is more credible and less likely to be full of shit than a civilian space agency? By which standards? What are we weighing against what and how to determine who's the more credible source of information? What I want to point out here is the clear hypocrisy. If you're skeptical towards one side why aren't you towards the other? You just chose one team and are against the other for no good reason. A more reasonable position would be to stay "neutral", which means to not be on anyone's side and skeptical towards both, but I'm digressing.
True scientific research is more than just reading articles, watching videos and putting together a bunch of diagrams. It's repeated and continuous, rigorous testing and experimenting. The beauty of the scientific method is that you can pretty much do it yourself and confirm everything by yourself.
In the past, before the scientific revolution, people didn't have most of the instruments we have today to do proper research, so what they mainly relied on was language, reason and arguments. Now, despite having all the tools, instruments and technology, a lot of people, to a large degree maybe out of laziness and the false comfort of sitting behind a computer?, are so easily fooled by pseudo-intellectuals on the internet. On one hand their "standard of proof/evidence" seems to have grown, because the evidence provided by the scientific community is "not enough" to convince them, but on the other hand their "standard of proof/evidence" seems to have fallen, because they so easily believe the flawed arguments, weak rhetorics and pseudo-evidence of random guys on Youtube. The troll-culture adds fuel to the fire.
Why are images released on Youtube more convincing than images released by NASA? An average dude on the internet is more credible and less likely to be full of shit than a civilian space agency? By which standards? What are we weighing against what and how to determine who's the more credible source of information? What I want to point out here is the clear hypocrisy. If you're skeptical towards one side why aren't you towards the other? You just chose one team and are against the other for no good reason. A more reasonable position would be to stay "neutral", which means to not be on anyone's side and skeptical towards both, but I'm digressing.
True scientific research is more than just reading articles, watching videos and putting together a bunch of diagrams. It's repeated and continuous, rigorous testing and experimenting. The beauty of the scientific method is that you can pretty much do it yourself and confirm everything by yourself.
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