• More than just research is needed and that’s what many miss. One must be able to reliably evaluate the quality of evidence to sort fact from baloney. Doing so requires critical thinking, the ability to be able to poke holes in theories regardless of whether you like them or not, and the willingness to be wrong and, above all else, the mental flexibility to update your knowledge when proven so. Not everyone is able to do that.

      I am used to being wrong a lot so it comes naturally lol.

      • Plus the methodology. There’s an idea of actively seeking out research contrary to one’s hypothesis, this helps circumvent the confirmation bias of only looking for things that support a hypothesis and ignoring anything contradictory. It can be healthy to find and consider dissenting opinions.

        Another fundamental issue is people using different meanings for similar words. Someone with a strong understanding of scientific method will say things like “I believe” or “studies show”, while someone else will say things like “This is” or “we know”. Colloquially the latter is stronger language conveying more confidence, but the former is more likely to be evidence based. “Theory” is used colloquially the way a scientist would use “hypothesis”. People will say “I have a theory”, that’s only a few sentences and doesn’t make any reliable predictions, the put down an actual theory backed by years of supporting evidence and peer review as “just a theory”.

    • The problem arises from the fact that the internet in particular incentivizes attracting attention above all other things and there’s no incentive for being correct, nuanced or well-researched. Combine that with the fact that people like to be right about things and doubly so when everyone else is wrong about it and you create a world where conspiracy, woo and other bullshit is actually an industry. I feel like that’s part that always gets lost in these discussions: people are making money from this.

      •  MudMan   ( @MudMan@kbin.social ) 
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        10 months ago

        Unless the authorial intent is to read it in your head as performed by a William Shatner impersonator they are outright wrong. That predicate has been split so finely it’s outright minced.

        Here’s a fun trick for sentence structure that helps with punctuation: replace clauses with single words and see if the sentence still looks good:

        “Just because you are right, does not mean, I am wrong.”
        “This, means, that. Mr. Spock.”

        Mmmminced.

          • No, I didn’t. I don’t know who teaches people that commas represent small pauses in speech, but they’re not helping.

            That’s what the ellipsis is for. If you want to correctly do fake Shatner you do

            “This… means… that, Mr. Spock”.

            That’s where the comma should go, by the way. You use it to separate the vocative. I had to use a period in the incorrect sentence above just to avoid the redundancy with the incorrect ones splitting the verb from the subject and the object.

            • As long as the intended reading was conveyed, what’s the problem?

              Using commas as pauses in speech gets the intent across, even if it isn’t the “correct” punctuation. That’s why people keep doing it. People read your examples of Shatnerisms with commas and think its fine, and if enough people think it’s fine then it actually is. Rules aren’t real.

              The OP is garbage, though. It comes across as stuttery and, like you said, minced.

              • No, they don’t. The difference between commas and ellipses is not at the length of the pause. Commas don’t necessarily correlate to a pause at all in many cases, and separating the verb from the subject with a comma is straight-up wrong. I hate to link to sources of authority in stuff like this because it’s patronizing as hell, but I promise you can look this up.

                I know somebody told you that’s it’s about conveying speech pauses, and I’m sorry you had to find out in the middle of an Internet argument where you tried to show up a pedant, so now you’re entrenched and will refuse to back down for all eternity, but… yeah, no, that sentence is wrong.

  •  Ilflish   ( @Ilflish@lemm.ee ) 
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    10 months ago

    “The building is behind me therefore it’s a six”

    “But the number should be facing away from the building therefore it’s a nine”

    Me, an intellectual: “I want egg”