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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
 Posted - 10/19/2009 : 20:36:06
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This is a serious problem, and it is a bit more subtle than people realize I think.
I've been reading books, websites, and essays about skepticism for a couple of decades. It is easy for us to pick apart the obvious bologna out there, the new age shamans, the ghost hunters, the psychics, the preachers, the over-unity fools, 9-11 truthers, miracle thaw, and all the rest of the crackpots that blatantly demonstrate their crackpottery in the public sphere. The easy targets.
The basic tools of skepticism (thank you Sagan, Randi, et al) are easy to use on that kind of nonsense. And really, there is quite a lot of that type of thing to sharpen your skeptic skills on.
I have recently begun to notice a new class of crackpot out there, one that is wearing a lot of camo, and blending into the world of actual experts. In fact, I think this class of crackpot has become so ubiquitous, so accepted, and so ingrained into the public consciousness that they are not widely recognized for the cracked pot they are! In fact they are often celebrated for their "expertise"!
I don't have a catchy phrase or label for these false experts, I've been going with "expert by fiat or popular acclamation".
So here is one example:
Jillian Michaels
She is charismatic, attractive (ok, she is smokin' hot, really), and is on a couple of TV shows. She is a personal trainer. That's it. No college degrees at all that I can find, and if she has one I expect it is in something like exercise kinesiology (that is the most common degree listed on the personal trainer cards at the gym I use).
I have no doubt that she knows how to exercise and knows how to teach other people how to exercise. The same for food, counting calories, creating a calorie deficit, and all the things that go along with being a good personal trainer. She is a walking advertisement for her actual expertise in that area. You simply don't get into that good a physical condition unless you have some knowledge there.
But check this:
Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body!
Here is a bit of the review and description of the book, from the link above.
Michaels (Making the Cut; Winning by Losing), the strength trainer for television's The Biggest Loser, here addresses the influence that hormone balance—affected by estrogen, insulin, testosterone, cortisol, epinephrine, leptin, and others—has on weight loss. Various internal and external influences can cause hormones to over- or underproduce, resulting in not only weight gain but serious illness. Michaels's plan emphasizes natural foods, organically grown and unprocessed. She describes which foods affect which hormones and how plastics and pollutants in our air and water and additives in many different products can also cause imbalances. She makes a good case for not using bioidentical hormones. Michaels claims that most prescription drugs should be eliminated but does recommend doing this under a doctor's supervision. This generally responsible program is bound to be popular with the public. Not an essential purchase, but a good one if you need this type of material.—Susan B. Hagloch, formerly with Tuscarawas Cty. P.L., New Philadelphia, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
(emphasis mine)
Well, that is all fine and dandy.... if she were a biochemist or endocrinologist. The book reviews by readers on amazon are almost overwhelmingly positive, the few negative reviews seem to be because the kindle edition of the book has some format issues. If you took out those kindle format negative reviews the average review would be greater than the 4/5 stars it is now!
How can a personal trainer, with no college degree, be considered an expert on hormones and metabolism? If every sentence in her book was factually correct (it isn't), and every claim backed by real science (they aren't. Some are, but not all), how could she even then be considered an actual expert?
But she is considered an expert by many! An expert by fiat and popular acclaim! Because she is on TV?
I singled her out because my girlfriend is reading her book now (not for any personal gripe), but I've been pondering the problem of false experts for a while. From Nobel Prize winning chemists on down to personal trainers, it seems to me that these false experts may be a bigger issue and bigger problem for scientific skepticism than the blatant cranks. I'm willing to wager that most of you have seen or heard some false expertise somewhere today...
In a culture where the media give false credibility to a virtual army of fakes, what do we do (if we can do anything) about it? How can we stop them drowning out the real experts?
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 10/20/2009 : 11:15:28 [Permalink]
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We, as a species, could well be in contention for the title of Greatest Bullshitters of the Universe, Ever. We all do this to a degree and it's so natural that we scarcely realize it, especially if there's cash involved. But sooner or later, the time to put up or shut up usually (but not always) arrives and we get embarrassed at best or jailed (or shot) at worst.
The sad part is that our peers let us get away with it for as long as we do, but they too, are bullshitters and understand perfectly.
The charming Ms. Michaels is merely one amongst the billions and scarcly worth the bother; not when we have real bullshitters about. George Wanker Walker Bush comes to mind, and so does his daddy. Indeed, historically, political aspirants have taken bullshitting about their expertise to a form of high art. They get away with it, mostly, because we are all idiots and too lazy, or cowardly, to lynch the bullshitting bastards.
The world is afloat on an ocean of bullshit, it's tides ebbing and flowing with the volume of nonsense spewing forth from the bovine anus that is ourselves. From preachers claiming to know the mind of God and would debunk the Theory of Evolution, to the Ph.D bullshitters who follow them, to homeopathy floggers, to lies told on a resume, it's all merely bullshit and we love it. We must love it because we allow so much of it.
What can we do about it? Why nothing, actually.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2009 : 11:32:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dude
In a culture where the media give false credibility to a virtual army of fakes, what do we do (if we can do anything) about it? How can we stop them drowning out the real experts?
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Especially when the media is a virtual army of fakes.
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2009 : 12:42:48 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gorgo
Originally posted by Dude
In a culture where the media give false credibility to a virtual army of fakes, what do we do (if we can do anything) about it? How can we stop them drowning out the real experts?
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Especially when the media is a virtual army of fakes.
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I agree. They are an army of tabloid gossip mongers at best. That is a thread all it's own though.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Bob Lloyd
Skeptic Friend
Spain
59 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2009 : 09:51:58 [Permalink]
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The appropriation of the language of science has been going on for a long time, and it's a standard Woo technique - use the vocabulary of science to imply authority, then make a ridiculous jump to unjustified conclusions.
When someone talks about hormones, most people have no idea what they are (except perhaps they've heard of testosterone from sports commentators, and oestrogen from contraception talk). The same applies to food Woo where people are bamboozled by talk of toxins and detox. (Of course, we don't have toxins accumulating in our bodies, and have no need of detox.)
But we won't get the majority of people understanding this stuff in detail. A more useful approach, I think, is getting people to question the assumptions and to ask critical questions. And encouraging a better understanding of human biology.
Certainly, it's important for those with some skills to criticise this nonsense and expose it. I've tried to do some of that in my book Leaving the Land of Woo (shameless plug over :) but I agree there seems to be a shortage of scientifically trained people willing to step up and do it. Perhaps it's just the sheer scale of the task.
Certainly the (now discredited) postmodernist notion that science was just an opinion, did untold harm to intelligent people's understanding of scientific results. They have a lot to answer for. |
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2009 : 17:45:49 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Bob Lloyd
The appropriation of the language of science has been going on for a long time, and it's a standard Woo technique - use the vocabulary of science to imply authority, then make a ridiculous jump to unjustified conclusions.
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Very true , one example is "studies show". All it takes to do a simple study is for one person to think about something for a moment or longer and poof, there's your study. Let's not forget the "Lab Coat"! I love ads on TV or in print where there a person wearing a lab coat, poof again, instant credibility. With or without a stethoscope. SS |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2009 : 19:15:27 [Permalink]
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| The appropriation of the language of science has been going on for a long time, and it's a standard Woo technique - use the vocabulary of science to imply authority, then make a ridiculous jump to unjustified conclusions. |
I go to a lot of New Age expo's. Sciencey sounding pitches are the thing. The use of the word "quantum" is everywhere. And last I checked "negative ions" are still the ion of choice. They even clean our clothes without detergent. Electromagnetism is both a cure and very harmful, depending on what is being sold. In truth, you would think that most of the New Ager's are in very bad health, because cures are at the top of the list of things being sold at those expo's. And the pitch almost always includes the "science" behind the product.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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The Death Of Real Expertise
