Thread by @eatcookwrite

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd David, it's worse than just that Thacker is warped, malicious individual. There are plenty of those and I'm inclined to ignore them.

It's that democracy in America is under assault and we are in danger of slipping into authoritarianism ... 1/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd Thackerism is characterized by a set of habits of mind and an approach to politics that is corrosive of democracy and conducive to authoritarianism. 2/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd Thackerism is against empiricism. As a science reporter, he treats the science as unknowable on its merits but starts with an assumption of a priori knowledge of conclusions and an anti-empirical approach to assessing the validity of evidence. 3/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd It is assumed a priori that pesticides are harmful and corporations are malevolent (this not a critique capitalism or profit, just naive moralism masquerading as wised up cynicism, the result is more nihilistic than cynical). 4/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd Thus any evidence that pesticides are harmful is judged credible and any evidence that they are not is judged as a corrupt manipulation arranged by malevolent corporations and even more shadowy forces. 5/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd The actual strengths and weakness of evidence is never assessed and the weight of evidence demonstrated in the overall body of literature is irrelevant. 6/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd So instead of explainer journalism assessing the evidence and then carefully assessing COIs and biases of various players, we get these smear jobs where bad faith is assumed and guilt can be assigned by association. And associations can be conjured from rumor and innuendo. 7/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd Truth claims can be assessed not by empirical evidence but tribally, by who they injure or redound to. A poorly designed rat study that shows Roundup causes cancer? That's credible because it hurts Monsanto! 8/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd A massive epidemiological study funded by the National Cancer Institute that shows it doesn't? Industry propaganda. 9/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd If the decision to forgo assessing scientific evidence, basing assessments of reality on tribal loyalties, and using personal smear mongering as the preferred mode of political discourse sounds like Trumpism ... 10/n

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd that's because they both draw on the same anti-democratic, authoritarian Modus Operandi.

And I don't have any patience for that shit in 2019.

@mem_somerville @wapaDB @songberryfarm @welovegv @helenchristophi @thackerpd PS
Don't fuck with my friends. The people I break bread with.