this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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I don't agree with this. The stuff written by, for example, the "vaccines cause autism" people can sound as sophisticated and authoritative as any textbook. A high-school education isn't going to help someone judge it according to its merits. Thus the problem is a collapse of trust in authority rather than a lack of basic knowledge, because ultimately an ordinary person can only decide to trust the scientific consensus without meaningfully verifying it.
But understanding how science works is key to having trust in it. If you lack that understanding you may just think it's a bunch of stuck up eggheads who pick whatever truth is convenient to them.
But both sides sound as if they have done real science, so a basic understanding of how science is done won't be enough to tell them apart. You can get anti-vaccine books written in an academic tone with citations. They go through the appearance of presenting evidence. The only difference between the two sides that is visible to an ordinary member of the public is that one side represents "the establishment" and the other side doesn't.
Even professional scientists have to have a lot of trust in the institutions of science - if I read a paper then unless there is something egregiously wrong, I rely on the journal and the scientific community to check that the authors did what they claimed to do and that they got the results they claim to have.
I think you're right, to some extent, but I think a slightly more than basic understanding of physics, chemistry, biology, and perhaps most importantly, statistics, helps you cut through a lot of the bullshit extremely easily
It really depends how science is taught: whether they're tought to memorise a bunch of facts and formulas, or actually use reasoning...
People like this argument, because they can then hate autistics. They could say we are inherently broken and need to be "fixed" or genocided.
At this point, I only respect people who were discriminated/abused/mistreated in their childhood.