Personally, I use it as another reason to never trust the prevailing narrative on social media just because it’s popular. I also don’t take moderators or moderation seriously because of how many of them use it as a tool to promote their own agendas.
Science should always be open to criticism. As soon as we start pushing the idea that science and scientists cannot and should not be questioned, it becomes exactly like religion.
Science is fallible. It always has been and always will be. Look at history and you will find no shortage of prevailing scientific narratives being proven wrong after time passes and people have more information. Also look at history and you never see the people pushing or believing false information apologize or take any accountability.
I’m ashamed to have fallen for the manipulative tactics from both mainstream media organizations and the useful idiots on social media. It really has opened my eyes to how inept and incompetent the average individual is, and it makes no sense to go along with the group simply because what they’re doing is popular.
It’s also disgusting how such a catastrophic event is now completely gone from the news cycle after information comes out that we were lied to. Before, the media couldn’t resist on reporting any sliver of COVID misinformation and lies. Now that we have the truth, it’s exceedingly difficult to find any outlets that discuss it.
“It’s easier to fool a man than to convince him he’d been fooled.” - Mark Twain
There’s nothing circular in what I said. I made a conditional claim: propaganda aimed at the regime, not the people, is justified when that regime is authoritarian. That’s not “assuming the conclusion” - it’s stating a position based on a distinction you seem eager to ignore. Disagree with it if you want, but at least engage with the actual logic.
“It’s ok to deliberately spread defamatory misinformation about China to make them look bad, because they are bad! No, I have not examined how I came to that conclusion, why do you ask?”
Do you also make this argument for Russian propaganda?
The fact that you have to completely rewrite my argument into a strawman before you can attack it tells me all I need to know about who I’m dealing with here. Have a great day.
In what way does my paraphrasing of you misrepresent your position?
Ad-hominom. I guess that tells me all in need to know about you?