By way of Pharyngula, there's this:
In case you don't know, Thomas R. Holtz is one of the world's foremost vertebrate paleontologists. And no, there's no such thing as the Dinosauria kingdom, dinosaurs are definitely animals, and birds are dinosaurs, just as humans are mammals.
I draw your attention to this because it is an epidemic --people who think they know more about a subject than actual experts. They are following the example of their Dear Leader, which is why they can just decide that masks don't protect against transmission of Covid-19, that climate change is a hoax, or that taxes on profits cause corporations to raise consumer prices. The dismissal of science, and expertise in general, is extremely dangerous, because it has real social, biological and political consequences. Sure, experts get some things wrong and they sometimes disagree. Human knowledge is still limited and fallible. But some people know a lot more than you do about particular subjects, and your first option should be to believe them.
3 comments:
It's the age of Dunning-Kruger.
It's one thing to be a dilettante, but to be a member of the ignoramousaurus species has never been more common. I think one driver is celebrityism. People feel "less than" because other members of Homo ignoramousaurus are being artificially elevated through the medium of television (and now the internet).
Obviously, another driver is the inequity of capitalism.
Another major driver is tribalism. There seems to be a fundamental ignorance and/or denial that we're all on this little blue marble together, interrelated, with our survival dependent upon one another.
People have always been people. But perception has never been manipulated to the extent it is being done now. And perception is, with humans, everything.
H. ignoramosaurus is the fastest growing species on earth, outcompeting us in all but a few environments. Though outwardly identical to H. sapiens they have a few special identification markers. For example, when cornered they emit a rapid-fire babble at 90dB which usually serves to drive away their interlocutor. Also, they appear to think that DInotopia was a documentary.
Thank you for that wry comment. It brought a smile to my face and the knowledge that there are sane human beings still treading this earth.
Post a Comment