Something is rotten in skepticism. During the pandemic, our best ‘how to spot abject fuckery in the wild’ guidelines went ignored by some folks who should have known better. Those guidelines and logical fallacies were twisted to let folks keep the illusion alive that they were still the ‘rational’ thinkers, all while embracing the worst of pseudoscience.
This won’t fix the problem. But the first step is always admitting there is a problem.
Today’s Moment of Science… SciBabe’s (heavily abridged) Guide to a Fuckery Free Life
Look, I need a literal book to get through all of this, but you’re gonna see some fuckery on the internet. Today. Tomorrow. You almost definitely tripped over it yesterday too. It’s easy to say ‘fact check everything,’ but fact checking only works with a solid understanding of what you’re supposed to be checking for in the first place. So before you think to yourself ‘seems legit’ and hit ‘repost’ on the next meme with a fake Carl Sagan quote, here are a few things to consider before sharing anything on Al Gore’s internet.
Not all data, studies, or people with the title of “doctor” are created equal. However, some grifters are really hoping you don’t notice the difference. It’s not cherry picking to reject turds that were polished and painted to look like cherries.
Learn propaganda techniques so you can recognize them when you see them. This will help you recognize biased sources, even if that bias is towards “your” side. Propaganda is not always used for nefarious purposes like war or begging your parents for a puppy. If you have a dating profile, you’re probably using propaganda without even knowing it. Spot the techniques, and you’re better equipped to spot when they’re being used to conceal the truth or promote disinformation.
The easiest person to fool is yourself, and you come with an assortment of silly ideas and biases. When a news outlet affirms all your worldviews or opinions, take a step back and check what their biases are, and perhaps re-examine your own as well. Because news outlets aren’t supposed to give you opinions to agree with, they’re supposed to tell you what the fuck happened.
If you want something to be true, ask even more questions. Because we don’t make truth happen with the power of wishful thinking, we do that shit with data.
Be wary when a single story is presented as grander proof of concept. Even when a case study of one patient is published in a legitimate scientific journal, it’s documentation that a thing happened once. There’s still a lot of testing necessary to figure out why it happened or if it’s replicable. Whatever syringe of science liquid may seem like a miracle cure in that case study, there are another 10,000 data points to gather before you’ve got something real.
Nothing causes every health problem. From arsenic to ionizing radiation, they all have specific mechanisms by which they deliver a dose of fuck-you-up. So when one thing (like, for instance, vaccines or looking at RFK Jr’s stupid fucking face) is presented as the cause of every health issue imaginable, brace for disappointment if you get a chance to look at the data.
Furthermore, nothing cures everything. A miracle gizmo/product/cure is presented as unassailable and works 100% of the time. If it’s not working, it’s a sign you’re doing something wrong, not that the cure doesn’t work. You didn’t take it at the right time of day, in the sunlight, in the shade, in a box with a fox. The explanation may as well be that you didn’t clap hard enough for Tinkerbell. It’s never because it just doesn’t fucking work.
In a vacuum, nobody can hear you scream over the sound of all the grifters. When there’s a new scientific or medical thing in the news, real experts are doing the long job of sorting out how to keep your ass alive. Meanwhile, dickwards can shout whatever they feel like into the void as long as they use a few big technical words, public safety and the supply of anti-malarials be damned. It’s a great time for unscrupulous characters to take advantage of our collective ignorance regarding something new, scary, and potentially profitable.
Be wary of someone who trades in on a bit of fame and a calm tone of voice for legitimacy. A lot of people can say utterly fucking daffy things while staying perfectly calm to cast an illusion of expertise. I advise that you get yourself a real doctor who’s pissed and screaming about deadly vaccine misinformation instead.
When a small media outlet claims the mainstream media is ignoring what should be a major story, check where they got their information about that story to begin with. Because unless they were at the scene with a camera taking interviews, it was almost certainly covered in a much larger media outlet. There has to be a German word that means “laughable but also goddamn maddening” when these places cite the New York fucking Times.
Yes, most of these could use some elaboration. Who knows, maybe I’ll write a book.
This has been your Moment of Science, reminding you that Al Gore never claimed he invented the internet.
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