@maxdancona,
maxdancona wrote:
1. There are some things that are almost certainly true, or probably true.
There are reasons to suggest something is true or not. You present the reasons you have to present and the 'almost certainly' or 'probably' is grounded in those reasons. You saying that something is 'almost certainly' or 'probably' true without explanation is worthless.
Quote:2. There are some things that are possibly true to a reasonable person. Reasonable people can disagree.
'Reasonable' isn't a status. Reasoning is a process of providing and evaluating reasons. The evaluation process is also done by reasoning. The moment you shift gears to evaluating reasons without explaining your reasons, you have become unreasonable.
e.g. "just because" or "because experts say so," is not reasoning, it's groundless attribution to authority.
Quote:3. There are some things that are completely ridiculous (although technically possible).
Maybe, but then you should explain why and not use analogies like, "and maybe lizard people live underground in Antarctica." That's faulty reasoning.
Quote:4. And some of the things that are completely ridiculous are offensive (e.g. for example the antisemitic conspiracies suggesting a Jewish plot against the world are promoting racist and dangerous stereotypes).
You have to distinguish the anti-Semitic part from the conspiracy part. Otherwise you are 'playing the anti-Semitic card" in lieu of actually explaining why a theory is implausible. Yes, you should explain why something is anti-Semitic and call people on it, but maybe someone really thinks there's a conspiracy driven by finance without intending it to harass Jews generally. I realize that by saying that, it's like I'm giving anti-Semites an excuse to covertly spread anti-Semitism and then claim it's not meant as anti-Semitism, but it's also true that everyone has ethnicity so anything could be taken as an ethnic attack, even if it's not meant that way; e.g. Trump could say that all anti-Trumpism is anti-Americanism but the fact is that only some anti-Trumpism is a byproduct of anti-Americanism while other people who love American just don't like Trump. Both phenomena exist, but they are not the same.
Quote:Many of the things you are arguing are completely ridiculous. You are not just suggesting one or two evil scientists have initiated their evil scheme of world domination.
Claiming they are ridiculous implies that you have some basis for evaluating how likely or unlikely conspiracy is, but you simply don't have that except as a subjective 'feeling' based on the fact that conspiracy theory is culturally taboo.
Quote:You are suggesting that every reputable geneticist on the planet is in on this plot to hide the fact that this a man made virus. They are all saying, after studying the genetic code, that there is it highly unlikely (beyond a reasonable doubt) that this is a man made virus.
Put it this way: what reputable geneticist is going to come out and be the first to suggest that the virus could be engineered, even if they think so? Making such a claim would make them a target of whoever was behind the engineering. Don't you think fear motivates people?
Quote:This theory is ridiculous because it makes no sense. The amount of effort it would take to stifle all of the geneticists around the world, without one of them leaking the plot, is on the level of extraterrestrial lizard-people controlling the world. Can I prove to you that there are no lizard people under the North Pole? No. Even if we went to go look you could decide they have stealth technology or mind control powers that keep them hidden. That doesn't mean it isn't ridiculous.
For one thing, if someone was going to engineer an artificial virus, they would put effort into making it look natural so it would escape scrutiny, as they would know independent geneticists would be studying it.
Quote:By the way, the reason that it is called "critical" thinking is that you are supposed to question your ridiculous ideas before you decide to promote them. It would be a good thing if you could realize yourself how crazy your ideas are.
You didn't even speak to the more likely conspiracy, which is that all the media hype around the virus is an exaggeration for the sake of achieving political-economic effects.
Did you read the other thread where Walter Hintler posted that COVID19 wasn't even flagged as a major threat by some governmental authority (I forget which one now)? How does it make sense that some governments would be declaring quarantines and social-distancing and building emergency hospitals and morgues while other governments are evaluating the disease as less than a top threat?
What do you say about that kind of inconsistency? Is there that much room for interpretation in the science for top governmental medical authorities?