Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Eli Would Argur

An advantage of having the keys (eat your heart out #1) is that you can reply in a post to comments and not have your perils of wisdom buried in the comments.  Allow Eli some pleasure.

The Bunny's policy has been that the posts belong to him, Brian and John, and, as far as possible, the comments here belong to those who read.  However, in the polite contestation against pedants and peddlers that only goes so far.

Now some, not Eli to be sure, might think that allowing confusion to flourish is the entire point of Judyland and some of our favorite friends, who, Galileo like, search the ether for true meaning and natural variability.  Devaluing and belittling knowledge is a superior tactic when reality threatens  As a backup, claim that it is undemocratic that thems with the knowledge express conclusions that flow from them.

As discussed here a few days ago, the ENTERTAINMENTNET has changed the rules.  Where before one could, in John's words, have a "crank case", a box in which the routine disproofs of relativity were tossed, today, allowing nonsense to stand authoritatively unchallenged especially on one's own blog means that somebunny is going to google it, say hey, I read it on a real scientist's blog, and that imposes obligations..

Sometimes (Eli is fortunate), readers show up to condemn the Shadow Host, and that is excellent, but science blog owners have a duty to step in.  The Bunny would even go further, in that there is an obligation of scientists to find a way of expressing mirth wherever necessary, except sometimes, about some issues it ain't funny and that is a hard row to hoe.  Each needs find their own trail.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad I can be in the forefront of your thoughts.


FWIW the post you linked to where I get my mention, is one I did not even comment on.



1

Hank Roberts said...

As John Mashey continues to point out -- in the absence of the Usenet Killfile (which put the responsibility for choosing what to see on the individual reader), the tool we need is a simple one that tosses the netwittery into a bitbucket/borehole/sidebar/shadow thread, tagging it appropriately.

Alas. Anyone competent enough to manage developing such, ought to set up a Kickstarter to develop it. I'd buy in, gladly.

Hank Roberts said...

A reminder:

"... I wish people already knew about this stuff. It reinforces a fact: America truly does harbor two separate and nearly incommensurate tribes, “Red” and “Blue,” if you will; how many of us Blue folks know that getting roped into coughing up hard-earned money you’ll never see again to Republican-affiliated “multilevel marketing” (MLM) companies—in hustles formerly known as “pyramid schemes”—is as common in Evangelical and Mormon culture as going to yoga class in our own?"
http://www.thenation.com/blog/174160/eye-pyramids-part-1-how-it-works

Having watched people sink large amounts of money and time into wacko nonsense painted with both the red and the blue tints, for decades, I wonder if it's possible to teach people that they're susceptible to this kind of thing. But one must try.

Hell, sometimes it's multilevel marketing selling the yoga mats, nutraceuticals, oriental medicine powders, etc. The vulnerability isn't limited to one brand of politics.

But -- it's politics.