Scientists, Stop Thinking Explaining Science Will Fix Things

Short version: Spend less time explaining how something works and more time explaining why people should care. (Or perhaps speak more simply so Trump Supporters can understand). ;-)

By the way, this comes timely, as NdGT had a short 4-minute video the other day, which he claims contains ( Read more... )

As irrational as that particular brand of fear and hatred my be, some may've occasionally done the futile exercise of attempting to comprehend where it's coming from - against the advice of all past experience from encounters with bigots. Well, after a somewhat thorough sifting through tons of disgusting and outright nauseating displays of pure ( Read more... )

I'm sure most of us have had a moment or two when all they wanted was to smack somebody with something heavy on the head, or reach across the screen and grab their opponent and strangle them with their bare hands. Thing is, it's not just the sheer obtuse stubbornness and/or deliberate tickling of the most sensitive nerves in the most unpleasant way ( Read more... )

O hail, my fellow mercantile materialists pious noble folks! See, I might be getting it way too simplistically here, but the way I see it, "confirmation bias" = when someone has pre-decided to believe in something without having checked all info on the subject; and then scrambling for all sorts of sources and evidence that would confirm said ( Read more... )

As Marcus Aurelius meditated (and Hanibal Lecter paraphrased); ...Examine this thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its substance and material? What its causal nature or form? And what does it do?(emphasis mine ( Read more... )

Everyone should read and understand this:
5 Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You ThinkI think they pretty much apply to everyone here, although some are more guilty than others. Do you think it would be helpful to have a list of common fallacies numbered on the comm user info so that we could just refer to that when someone commits ( Read more... )

In an effort to follow my own advice, and be less of a self-righteous douchebag, I am posting a list of recognized logical fallacies along with thier most common manifestations in political discussion ( Read more... )

As one delves deeper into Math and Logic the hardest concept for many students to wrap thier head around is that an argument being true does not make it logical. (and vice versa)

Almost every common fallacy derives from the failure to keep this truth in mind ( Read more... )

My paternal grandad was an interesting man. He grew up on the western border of what is now the Ukraine and survived some of the worst that both the Soviet and Nazi regimes had to offer ( Read more... )

Well, the time has come for a self-administered beating.

http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/620572.html

Was bad enough. But then I followed it up with this:

http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/624814.html
Now, thanks to this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8295466/WikiLeaks-cables-show-Government-was- ( Read more... )