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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   31395 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023

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On one hand I want to say that surely, being able to recognize and admit misconduct is private is better than not being able to do so, so this leak is bad. On the other hand, this is a pretty impressive level of self-delusion even so, and we do want to push back on misconduct when we become aware of it.

But I guess my synthesis would be: if the only way we have of noticing misconduct in a topic as impactful as a world-wide pandemic is a leak of private messages where the scientists involved literally admit to it, then science has much, much bigger problems than these people's misconduct.

It's pretty ironic that in attempting to push 'Trust the Science' they have had the opposite effect to those that are paying attention (which lets be honest, unfortunately isn't the majority.)

I don't think it's ironic at all. It's just what's obviously going to happen if 1) it needs to be said in the first place and 2) you can't think of a more persuasive thing to say.

"Don't ask us to support our reasoning" is not trust building discourse.

But I guess my synthesis would be: if the only way we have of noticing misconduct in a topic as impactful as a world-wide pandemic is a leak of private messages where the scientists involved literally admit to it

"Random shitposters" noticed the misconduct pretty much right away, based mostly on perception of conflicts of interest and also the point that pangolins weren't sold at the Wuhan wet market. But obviously could not prove it to the arbitrarily high standards it takes to demonstrate fraud from respected scientists.

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