Thread by @ekverstania

This is such a common thing now. Just say there's a conspiracy, and that's evidence enough for QAnon supporters. Throw Soros into the sentence and that's verification for them.

https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1314313750548185088

When you ask them for REAL evidence, they go, "OMG do your own research! Don't you know how to use Google?!"
So you use Google and produce evidence to the contrary of what they say, and they move on to, "Think for yourself!"

Science communication is one of the most essential jobs in the world today. Not just, "What scientists say" or "What science says" (because many people don't trust that), but "HOW SCIENCE GETS ITS ANSWERS".

The fallibility of scientists and doctors is an important part of the what needs to be communicated, but it's only when people understand how science works that they can trust and distrust in a healthy way.

I mean, the average person doesn't know about things like predatory journals or ethics in research, or even that there are different types of research. Ask people what 'double-blind' means and many will probably tell you it's when someone has two eyes that can't see.

I have a friend who was a high school science teacher and she doesn't know this stuff. She just taught the currently accepted facts in specific subdisciplines.

The loss of nuance, complexity and grey areas is a huge problem.

Many people can't have a proper conversation about vaccination, because we try to oversimplify the message for people who don't understand the technicalities, and in the process we evoke the distrust of those already primed for conspiracy theories.

We have to be able to say that large pharmaceutical companies have committed many crimes WITHOUT immediately following that statement with a logical fallacy.

Come to think of it, it's not just science literacy. It's about @callin_bull. callingbullshit.org