Excellent post. Reading it, I'm reminded of Brandolini's Law: "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."
Professor Hotez is right not to waste his energy. I can't imagine anything more frustrating that arguing with the medically ignorant. And the "I'll donate $100,000..…
Excellent post. Reading it, I'm reminded of Brandolini's Law: "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."
Professor Hotez is right not to waste his energy. I can't imagine anything more frustrating that arguing with the medically ignorant. And the "I'll donate $100,000...." is laughably juvenile, a carry-over from the playground taunt of "I dare you". Then again, that pretty much sums up the Rogan crowd.
You're right, the truth is worth fighting for, but we don't have to fight in ways that are ineffective and resource/energy wasting. Dr. Jetelina clearly defined why fighting in every opportunity can be ineffective at best, harmful at worst. Are you saying you think engaging in every opportunity is necessary or worth it?
Sadly, this doesn't hold true in the case of career grifters like RFKjr. He's memorized the lies he tells because they are the basis of his grift. Every lie he tells is in service to driving more gullible people to donate to Children's Health Defense. It's not that RFKjr can't be swayed by data and facts. He's impervious to them. He doesn't care what the facts are. He won't embrace them because at even the slightest appearance that he's changed his mind about vaccine safety his entire edifice of grift tumbles to dust. And the money dries up. And nobody pays him any attention, ever again. Until they read his obituary, and they they go "what a shame..."
Excellent post. Reading it, I'm reminded of Brandolini's Law: "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."
Professor Hotez is right not to waste his energy. I can't imagine anything more frustrating that arguing with the medically ignorant. And the "I'll donate $100,000...." is laughably juvenile, a carry-over from the playground taunt of "I dare you". Then again, that pretty much sums up the Rogan crowd.
@Janet,
The truth is worth fighting for much like freedom is worth fighting for.
The alternative is restricted speech.
The extremists usually end up looking stupid when facts come out in a head to head debate. Usually the extremists end up not attending confrontation.
You're right, the truth is worth fighting for, but we don't have to fight in ways that are ineffective and resource/energy wasting. Dr. Jetelina clearly defined why fighting in every opportunity can be ineffective at best, harmful at worst. Are you saying you think engaging in every opportunity is necessary or worth it?
This dovetails with the energy transfer theory of accident causation:
All accidents are caused by rapid energy transfer
A hazard is an energy imbalance between two nearby systems
It always take infinitely more work to remember the lies than to tell the truth, which never changes.
Sadly, this doesn't hold true in the case of career grifters like RFKjr. He's memorized the lies he tells because they are the basis of his grift. Every lie he tells is in service to driving more gullible people to donate to Children's Health Defense. It's not that RFKjr can't be swayed by data and facts. He's impervious to them. He doesn't care what the facts are. He won't embrace them because at even the slightest appearance that he's changed his mind about vaccine safety his entire edifice of grift tumbles to dust. And the money dries up. And nobody pays him any attention, ever again. Until they read his obituary, and they they go "what a shame..."
To some extent Rogan is exactly the same