this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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Today I Learned

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Sure, fine, but this is exactly, precisely how misinformation spreads.

People who lack the sufficient knowledge set to evaluate a complex and technical claim present what appears to a layman to be a plausible idea as being roughly equivalent to the ideas that actual experts have, another brand name worth considering in the free market of ideas, more or less just another neutral option, with no strong feelings either way.

This is (unintentionally) subversive, because it elevates a ludicrous notion to a degree of plausibility that it absolutely does not deserve.

I do not mean to attack you as a person or say that you should feel bad or anything like that, I am simply here to be the counterforce, to try to explain how and why this is very silly.

Part of doing that effectively is crafting an engaging narrative.

Making punny jokes and being a bit vitriolic is engaging for other readers; again, not meant to attack or demean you as a person, but meant to mock this specific notion/idea/"theory".

After all, at the end of the day, we could stand to be a little more capable of intellectual humility, eh?

There's absolutely no problem with being wrong sometimes, understanding when why and how one can be or is wrong is how people learn, which should be celebrated, imo.