Thread by @ErrataRob

No, none of them.
- Yes, our best data suggest masks probably reduce the spread covid. But even then it's not protection. Depends on your definition of "work".
- There's much clearer evidence of vaccine efficacy, but still, "work"?
- The Belarus 2020 election was stolen.

https://twitter.com/kevin_bowen/status/1372297347112202240

"Masks work" is one of those polarizing political statements made to shut down legitimate debate. I'm never going to agree to that sort of nonsense. It's by questioning and debating such things that we acquire knowledge.

Now, the claim that the 2020 US presidential election indeed is an illegitimate conspiracy theory, but that's because we can easily debunk the claims. Yes, questioning the election is legitimate, refusal to hear the answers is when you become illegitimate.

For example, people legitimately questioned why Maricopa County recommended Sharpies after years of discouraging them. But the answer is because they changed the ballot so that bleed through is no longer a problem, and fast drying inks are better.

In other words, you don't need to believe "because experts told you so", you can instead look at the ballots and how they offset bleedthrough to confirm for yourself how they fixed the bleedthrough problem.

Question -- put pay attention to the answers.

Thus, we know Trump's and Guiliani's claims were false because they kept pointing to Sharpygate as one of the many pieces of evidence supporting their cause.

But the reason I bring the Belarus election into it is that sometimes elections are indeed stolen. In that case, fomenting civil unrest is a totally legitimate response, when the evidence is on your side.

Trump's fomenting civil unrest would've been totally legitimate had he been right. Thus, I don't agree that this was illegitimate. I claim instead that his lack of evidence that survives reasonable scrutiny is what's ultimately illegitimate.