The internet has made a lot of people armchair experts happy to offer their perspective with a degree of certainty, without doing the work to identify gaps in their knowledge. Often the mark of genuine expertise is knowing the limitations of your knowledge.

This isn’t a social media thing exclusively of course, I’ve met it in the real world too.

When I worked as a repair technician, members of the public would ask me for my diagnosis of faults and then debate them with me.

I’ve dedicated the second half of my life to understanding people and how they work, in this field it’s even worse because everyone has opinions on that topic!

And yet my friend who has a physics PhD doesn’t endure people explaining why his theories about battery tech are incorrect because of an article they read or an anecdote from someone’s past.

So I’m curious, do some fields experience this more than others?

If you have a field of expertise do you find people love to debate you without taking into account the gulf of awareness, skills and knowledge?

  • Ogmios
    54·
    6 months ago

    As someone actually trained to perform genetic therapy, it was incredible how many people wanted to correct me about my safety concerns regarding the covid shot.

    • essell@lemmy.worldOP
      31·
      6 months ago

      I’m impressed by your bravery in telling people that one, given the variety and origins of the “facts” on that topic! 😲

      • Ogmios
        43·
        6 months ago

        I’ve just learned not to give a shit if people want to whip themselves into a frenzy so they can feel the rush of being on the “winning” team by parroting whatever their go-to social conditioning coordinator told them in today’s podcast.

    • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      21·
      6 months ago

      Well surely now by May 2024 your concerns have proven not to be that big of a deal? It’s been years with billions of shots administered. Concern initially is fine IMO but by now you know the shots are fine, right?

      • Ogmios
        12·
        6 months ago

        There is absolutely still strong reason for concern. Even without looking into any of the documentation regarding negative effects that we’ve got now, it’s simply not possible to claim that we know everything we need to know about it already. Not by a long shot. Simply the ordinary testing regimes that these sorts of products are supposed to undergo are extremely long themselves.

        • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          21·
          6 months ago

          I think your concern for what genetic impact it will have on us is misplaced as evidenced by plenty of research and the billions of shots over 5 years but I’m also not going to go to the mat over this.

          • Ogmios
            11·
            6 months ago

            That’s a very wise choice not to go to the mat on this, because it’s simply the truth that this novel genetic treatment has never passed the ordinary testing regimes for such products, which very few products ever pass because we simply do not know the lion’s share of what there is to know about how genetics impact our body’s function.

            If you want to ignore the potential risks that’s fine. At the very least, whether you’re safe or not, we’ll get some valuable scientific data from you.

              • Ogmios
                1·
                6 months ago

                What exactly did you expect, picking an argument with someone in this thread of all places?