Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Why the people on this board can't see that is beyond me.

Some thought.
TB — (archived)

Sometimes a fact is a fact. Trying to convert the universe into a set of opinions is what people do when they don't like the facts.

I have theorized that this is a mindset that sometimes comes from people trained in "fuzzy subject" academic environments, or people who are influenced by such people. "Fuzzy" academia is where success is not a matter of finding objective answers, but of convincing a peer or superior that your views are valid. A professor of political science can give you an "A" or an "F" based on whether he likes you or whether his girlfriend left him last night, and couch either decision in enough bullshit to make it stick. Or at least make people afraid to challenge it. People raised on this mindset start to see the world that way. It explains a lot about the Ivy League types who infest politics.

Engineering doesn't work like that. There is no "consensus" on the tensile strength of aircraft aluminum. If you get it wrong, people die. A lot of the rest of reality doesn't work like that either.

How many of our political leaders have been working engineers, or for that matter, held any job other than lawyer or politician? I can think of a few. Very few.

If you want to make your point, show me where I'm wrong, that these people didn't say what they said. Don't try to slide loose with the idea that "right" and "wrong" are old-fashioned concepts.

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