Misinformation Merchants: The Siren Song of Fake Experts
This article is about an issue that comes up quite often when the natural sciences are involved. When the subject of evolution, or vaccine safety, or the nature of the universe comes up, people often refer to propagandists and pseudoscience peddlers. Concerned netizens, scholars, and political leaders try to intervene to correct misinformation or propaganda.
This needs to happen more often when fake experts and trolls expound on sociology, psychology, and economics. Those disciplines are more relevant to social problems and their solutions, after all. Violent crime, homelessness, and education are areas where anyone with a large audience can feel free to play at being an expert on criminology, social work, or educational psychology. I think you get the picture.
Social issues might even see more science abuse than contentious topics in the natural sciences, like evolution. The reasons are probably much the same. We like to be right. We like to have our worldview confirmed by experts. We like to demonstrate our advanced understanding of crime or cosmology or evolutionary biology even if we don’t necessarily understand the topics. Of course some people just want to get attention, often so they can make money off advertising.
These urges may be especially strong among people who follow fake experts who tell them what they want to hear.
> Want to “know” that blacks commit more crime because they are less evolved than Northern European whites?
> Want someone to tell you that more guns = less crime?
> Need to be told that the patriarchy caused most of our social and ecological problems?
> Convinced that communism never worked before?
> Dying to know how the government is the problem and freedom is the answer
Fake experts are out there peddling all of these ideas. The gun control debate offers some people an opportunity to explore the issues, factors that may influence violent crime, historical trends in gun violence, and so on. Other people see an opportunity to opine on the root causes of violent crime. “Opine” is the right word to use here.
Those talking heads may not understand the subject, or they may not care because they are paid to push a certain narrative. Either way, you are better off not listening. Instead, find out what credible authorities have to say.
Protect Your Mind from Propaganda
Review this article once or twice before going to the polls, in the US. Fake experts, pundits, and politicians who “know better” are sure to be out there peddling ideas that are counterfactual, illogical, or contrary to widely held values like family and health — producing social pollution to phrase things poetically.
Please clap and share if you find this stream-of-consciousness stuff helpful to understanding how politicians, pundits, and propagandists mislead us.
