Find Common Ground OR Call Out Woo Science?

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

@Timothy_Horton

Would you try to find commonality with Flat Earthers and Holocaust deniers? Sometimes woo science needs to be called out for the woo science it is. Science isn’t a democracy and all scientific claims aren’t equal or deserving of equal time.

@Timothy_Horton this is a false dichotomy. One does not have to choose. I would:

1. Find common ground with Flat Earthers and Holocaust deniers.
2. Call out the woo science for what it is (and the psuedohistory of holocaust denying too).

One does not need to choose between these things. Our goal is to do both. You are absolutely right that science is not democracy and that all scientific claims are not equal or deserving of equal time.

I encourage you to remember how a Woman Leaves the Westboro Baptist Church.

@swamidass

‘The truth is that the care shown to me by these strangers on the internet was itself a contradiction. It was growing evidence that people on the other side were not the demons I’d been led to believe.’

That is what we have an opportunity to do here too. Let us show care to others here, especially when they are new. It matters.

In the it is not enough to be right. We also have to be trusted. Trust grows with common ground. I’m not interested in grandstanding against bad science here. Instead, we want to be trustworthy and trusted voices, that build common ground with those with whom we disagree. We can be honest about what science does and does not say and also be tolerant of people at the same time.