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Pre scientific people were often dumb in believing incorrect things, but they believed these things largely due to the limitations of their methods and observational equipment. Modern beliefs which are incorrect are intentionally so, lots of these beliefs are literally supported by changing the definitions of things when statements about them have been falsified.
Aristotle believed that women naturally had fewer teeth than men because he was unable to check the chemistry of nutrient flows in pregnancy that led to tooth loss. He believed that objects in motion gradually come to a stop because he had no way of measuring air resistance. He believed women’s mental illnesses were caused by their wombs moving out of place because he had no way to check hormone levels. People believing falsified things about gender and sex being meaningfully different can check those things, they know they’re wrong, because they have checked this. They changed the relevant definitions instead of updating their beliefs.
Pre scientific people were intentionally mislead by smarter ones too: mystics, false religions, etc. And science is sometimes like mystic religion, with incorrect beliefs perpetuated by dogma, but I think it’s more accurate than those of the past: exposed papers do get retracted, my albeit basic understanding of mysticism is that there isn’t really an analogue “oh our beliefs are wrong now that outsiders have actually questioned them”.
We have mystics and false religions even today. Woo is still a thing.
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The difference in my view is that mystics, false religions, etc. didn't provide some structured, well-established method at arriving at facts and the truth the same way science does. Generally, mystics, to whatever extent they believe that their mysticism gives them access to the truth, doesn't purposefully corrupt their mysticism in an effort to "discover" that what is true is everything they wanted to be true all along (arguably the mysticism itself accomplishes that, which is one part of what makes it different from science). Right now, the people purporting to do science are doing exactly that, despite having all the tools and knowledge and information required to understand that they are indeed corrupting science and also how not to corrupt science. That's what makes their stupidity extra stupid.
Like how someone with training in arithmetic and calculators who declares the calculator as a tool of White Supremacy and therefore 12 x 12 = 1212, not 144 like what the calculator said, has a sort of stupidity that goes beyond the stupidity of someone who just never had access to mathematical education and declares 12 x 12 = 1221. 1212 is slightly more accurate because it's even like 144, not odd, and also closer to 144 than 1221 is, but the process by which the person arrived at that was arguably more stupid.
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