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Reason: None provided.

This essay is pretty valid.

In particular, peer review in medical science has become like a social medium. In it, there is too much 'Aristotelian authority' where the one who shouts the loudest and has any credentials to justify attacks gets the pulpit. This enabled by the fact that lots of medical results are actually soft science where causality is inferred and cannot be directly proven. It relies on statistics in many cases, and statistics are soft not hard.

Further, it is now common for statistics to be manipulated for political purposes. As an example, I once countered a CDC claim that a certain disease problem did not exist. Their claim relied on Kaiser polling people. it turned out the poll was fraudulent, because Kaiser only polled people who were Kaiser-insured and whose cases were reported by Kaiser doctors. They did not poll non-Kaiser doctors or other patients! The literature was thus contaminated with bad data.

Just as celebrities can become famous for being famous - there is no 'there' there - in some branches of the sciences authorities become authorities for being authorities: it does not mean they are right, just that they managed their careers effectively and elevated their image and power. It is kind of political in its own way, and true science should not be science-political.

1 year ago
1 score
Reason: Original

This essay is pretty valid.

In particular, peer review in medical science has become like a social medium. In it, there is too much 'Aristotelian authority' where the one who shouts the loudest and has any credentials to justify attacks gets the pulpit. This enabled by the fact that lots of medical results are actually soft science where causality is inferred and cannot be directly proven. It relies on statistics in many cases, and statistics are soft not hard.

Just as celebrities can become famous for being famous - there is no 'there' there - in some branches of the sciences authorities become authorities for being authorities: it does not mean they are right, just that they managed their careers effectively and elevated their image and power. It is kind of political in its own way, and true science should not be science-political.

1 year ago
1 score