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Institutionalized Scientists Angry Amateurs Showing Them Up, Demand They Be Stopped

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Institutionalized Scientists Angry Amateurs Showing Them Up, Demand They Be Stopped
By Briggs on May 14, 2021   • ( 24 Comments )

Crystal Lee of MIT—bio: “I work broadly on topics related to the social and political dimensions of computing, data visualization, and disability. I also conduct ethnographic and computational research on social media communities like COVID skeptics, Chinese cyber-nationalist fandoms, and data hoarders” (data hoarders?)—is lead author of the paper “Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus Skeptics Use Orthodox Data Practices to Promote Unorthodox Science Online” (pdf).

The paper is just as weird as the title indicates, and can be summed up: amateurs are beating the pros at science, which should not be allowed, because institutionalized scientists create The Science.

Indeed, they take as certain sure the opinions of institutionalized scientists (in areas the authors themselves are ignorant) while demanding amateurs (who are not ignorant) be reined in.

This odd work neatly captures a trend we’re seeing everywhere, in which the Appeal to Authority is becoming Official Policy.

Some quotations (emphasis original; reference numbers removed):

https://wmbriggs.com/post/35746/

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