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Debating Antivaccine Cranks Debases Science and Harms the Public (www.scientificamerican.com)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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"Far from showcasing science, false-balance debates allow evidence-free fringe ideas to leech vampirically off the respectability of well-established theories. Cigarette companies muddied the clear scientific consensus that smoking was harmful just this way. Faced with incontrovertible evidence of harm, they instead amplified fringe figures, encouraging debate to confound that messaging. One 1969 memo put it bluntly, stating that “doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public.” Cynical as this is, it is remarkably effective at crafting a public aura of doubt over science, the same practices adopted by fossil fuel companies today about climate change."

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

This is tough for me. The authors make a sensible argument. I've never had a debate with antivaxxers that was fruitful or didn't leave me feeling deflated from the sheer weight of the lack of critical thinking. But there have also been sketchy things that the pharmaceutical companies have pulled, and I dislike the growing movement that any opposition to them is counter to science and should be silenced. Argh.