Having a scientific mindset – embracing skepticism, rationality, empiricism, etc. – does not mean accepting every idea or policy claiming to be based in science or endorsed by scientific experts, while dismissing out of hand any disagreement or alternative proposals as “anti-scientific” or “science denialism”.
That isn’t science, it’s cultism.
One can easily recognize this cultism in how the response to these supposedly scientific ideas or policies is accompanied by extravagant condescension, histrionic outrage, punitive spite, and other affects at odds with the objective and dispassionate pursuit of knowledge about reality.
— Avery Easton
Category: Avery Easton Quotes
Avery Easton on Challenging Experts
The expert’s claim to authority is his superior knowledge and skill in his particular sphere. Second-guessing him calls into question his legitimacy as an expert, and thus his claim on authority.
The solutions to this were straightforward: make it socially and intellectually uncouth to challenge experts (by labelling such questioning as “misinformation”, “conspiracy theory”, “anti-science”, or the like), and stop providing the layman with the information and thinking skills necessary for him to form and articulate such challenges.
— Avery Easton