"But I did my own research!"

I can’t imagine how many wives are living this exact scenario
- I'm sure tons of spouses are living this reality. Have you not seen The deluge of Karen types talking about how vaccines are a hoax?
  
  RFK stands for Really a F'n Karen
- Sexist fuck. Wives also pull this crap, you feminazi.

I hate that the extreme polarity of things right now keeps us from having the important conversations surrounding the kernels of truth within people’s mistrust and dissatisfaction.
It is a fact that the government has made a habit of lying to people. It is a fact that the cover of medical experimentation has been used to justify atrocities against minorities within the last 100 years.
However, it is not true that @JoeTruth1488 on 4Chan is likely to have all the answers to a conspiracy in plain sight. It is not true that InfoWars is spitting facts while everyone else is out to get you.
I can understand the mistrust of the system, but I can’t understand the conclusion that some anonymous yahoo with no inside perspective somehow has the resources to have figured it all out.
- They make it make sense in the way the reader wants it to make sense.
  
  There is nothing wrong with having a dissenting conclusion from your own observations, but accepting some internet creators conclusions as your own without scrutiny is equally as bad or worse than accepting the government lies they say they are rejecting. If they applied the same skepticism to their fringe news sources, we’d be in a better place, I think.
- I can understand the mistrust of the system, but I can’t understand the conclusion that some anonymous yahoo with no inside perspective somehow has the resources to have figured it all out.
  There was always some percentage of the population that believes in that stuff, for a variety of understandable reasons.
  That's... fine. It kinda worked.
  The problem is social media has amplified those voices by orders of magnitude because they're engaging (hence, profitable). The missing panel above is the FB post, YT segment, podcast (all recommended algorithmically) or whatever that led that guy down the rabbit hole.
  In other words, It's not a content problem, but an engagement one.
  
  I definitely agree. I’m old enough to remember when Alex Jones just had his late night radio show in Austin, and he was actually kind of fun back then. It was all about the hollow moon, reptilians, and grey aliens hosting the Bohemian Grove parties. Once he got an internet channel, it was a whole different ballgame.
  I miss the days of quaint kooks instead of dangerous kooks.

Tbf, in authoritarian regimes, scientists and doctors who speak the truth get silenced.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation_by_China
The government can censor the 90 of 100 scientists telling the truth, then amplify the 10 that is pro-government and spread disinformation. Then, any leaks by the ones telling the truth are then dismissed as conspiracy theories.
Don't blindly trust your social media posts.
But also don't blindly trust your government, especially if they are authoriarian / have a reputation for lying.
(Protip: Befriend scientists and doctors so you have direct access to information without going through mainstream media / social media)
- The whole covid thing was a shit show. I'm honestly surprised we survived it
  
  I'm still surpised we (humanity) didn't nuke ourselves during the cold war. I mean, there's at least lile 10 close-calls. Perhaps the miltiverse-theory is true and we are the only ones that survived or its like some quantum-immortality shit.
  
  I’m doing a bunch of vacationing at famous museums and it’s insane to me that after we all just learned how to survive a pandemic, I have seen exactly ZERO people who are sick and coughing up a lung in the museums are wearing a fucking mask. I hate humanity.
  
  You are not allowed to talk about the lab leak conspiracy theory.
  
  It made it obvious how government officials will either talk out of their asses or straight up lie. Like telling people everything is fine, go on vacation for spring break, then we're in lockdown by the middle of spring break (when it was clear that it was a big deal in south Korea and Italy already).
  Or repeating "there's no evidence of it being airborne" long after it was clear that it was airborne.
  Plus finding out the science of how particles move in the air medicine was using was decades behind the cutting edge and still believed it was based on the mass of the particle when airplanes existed that could remain airborne well over that "max mass".
  And that's not even going into Trump's bullshit.
- This is kinda how chernobyl happened.
- Then you have people like my sister: "nooo my nurse friend said the vaccine is the worst, i will never get vaccinated. I live healthy and go outside a lot, that's much better!"
  Edit: i don't disagree with you at all, just frustrating how even seemingly smart people form so stupid opinions..

- Oh this is so good...

I have known a ton of people like this. The hardest part of dealing with it is that sometimes they are right. It's typically a case where they came to the correct conclusion but arrived there by faulty logic and/or false information.
All they will ever recognize is that the were right, doesn't matter why or how. They never actually learned any lesson, they'll ignore the myriad other cases where they were absolutely wrong, while they continue to use the same baseless methodology to form future opinions and conclusions.
- They expect science to be 100 percent full proof. Because they don't understand how science works. It's a big proportion that agrees or disagrees with the process.
  Can I find some doctors that say the vaccine is crap? Sure. Anyone can. But how many compared to those that say that the vaccine is good. And then you lose them in all that certainty.
  They want the comfort because they lack the ability to use critical thinking. They do not realize that certainty is a luxury that very few things are awarded in life.
  
  That’s because they’re looking for confirmation, not truth.
  It’s not so much that they’re dumb (even if they are), it’s that they’re stubborn and unwilling to change their mind.
- They also generally come from a place of justified distrust of modern day mass (and sometimes even specialized) media, which makes it harder to reason with them.
  Much of the problem is the false assumption that their dumb internet forums and influencers aren't being manipulative as well, by different and more ruthless actors... Yeah, dude, the government does shady stuff and manipulates people and narratives, but Andrew Tate telling you to cheat on your wife while exposing your kids to polio isn't better is it?
- It's like a whole new tier of stupid.
  You've figured out people with good will and that are trying to do it correctly? Yeah well...
  Now, you've leveled up and have to deal with actual bozos and people with fried brains

I forever will associate "do your research" in this type of context with Flat Earth conspiracy theorists. I know a ton of people who are like this.
- If they actually do their own research then I do give them some respect
  https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/cpyq85/flatearther_accidentally_proves_the_earth_is/

"Honey can you check the mail? Oh, you didn't get your degree in biochemistry yet? What about the biomedical engineering degree? Not that one either? Hmm.."

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be, it's C.C. here, uh, Chris, from New York, Westchester County...
Earth is flat, space is fake, and I have to make videos in my car because my wife doesn't let me make them in the house anymore because even she thinks I'm a fucking moron.
- "god you're such a fucking moron"

People like this don't think they missed anything, they think it's a deliberate cover-up. Yeah, and I mean like the average dude thinks that.

Being anti vax is dumb. But we do need to acknowledge that what people are exposed to through legacy media isn't all of science. They dont normally expose you to information that tells you things like the best cure is prevention or that so much of the food in the US is abysmal and needs to be regulated

"Oh no no! They didn't miss that information. They're ignoring that information because big pharma something something..... "

There are lots of independent theoreticians who have done independent work, then brought it out to a scientific community and it's sparked a ton of interest.
And I do mean "independent theoretician" as in a respectful euphemism to "mad bastards", although I prefer the latter. You could also use "a touch too inspired".
Okay well this guy was an actual academic, but the fox breeder came to mind first. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Belyayev_(zoologist)
Then three was the woman who mapped the entire sea floor by fucking drawing it painstakingly herself from like sonar scan results. She's essentially who discovered good proof of tectonic plates. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Tharp
Tharp's discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge caused a paradigm shift in earth science that led to the acceptance of the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift.
Okay well yeah she was an academic as well but those are just two massive names I can think of rn. And loads of us on Lemmy are actually academic, technically.
But anyway, basically the argument in the comic could've been used against those people, and definitely was against the plate tectonic lady.
Hell, the guy who figured out surgeons were killing patients but the morgue-full just because they weren't washing their hands tried desperately convincing people to wash their hands and doctors just kept mocking him like "haha, as if it was our faults the patients died, right, yeah, tiny little bits of corpses on our hands, yea, haha, good one, Semmelweiss".
Dude became rather aggravated that he'd figured it out and no-one listened. Ended up in an asulym and died of sepsis, the very thing he fought against so hard.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/01/12/375663920/the-doctor-who-championed-hand-washing-and-saved-women-s-lives
I feel that guy. Can share his frustration.
- Yeah I don't think cousin fucker McHillbilly from Wyoming or wherever the fuck has anything to do with these
  Also, these are statistical outliers which make great news headlines. In reality most scientific advancements happen in academia but you can't make good clickbait for wine aunts like that
  
  I mean obviously most advancements happen in academy.
  I'm just saying it's not completely unrealistic for someone to actually realise something others have not.
  I understand the depiction is of someone probably non-academic, but like... have you seen Slavoj Zizek?
  That's an academic. Highly so.
  My point is rather that yeah, let's mock anti-science dumb dumb, but also, let's not idolise academic institutions. They're much better for objective research and general advancement. But lots of their material are available for people who aren't actively in academia and can still utilise it.
  I wish I had better examples, but yeah, I'm not defending the meme as being wrong, I'm just pointing out the stereotypes ans discussing nuances.
  Fuck those "do your own research people", but love the people who actually do do proper research on their own, quote sourced, and actually contribute something, no matter how small.
- Janet Stephens is my favourite of these examples.
  
  Ppl don't realise just how many geniuses go unrealised. It's like 1/50-200 ppl.
  Thanks for the link

Assuming this is in response to our MAGAt administration revoking authorization for children and healthy adults under 65?
- No, it's a comment about people refusing to believe professionals and experts know their field of study because they can't understand the problem themselves.

The same top doctors and scientists responsible for perpetuating systemic biases in modern medicine against women and POC?
The same top doctors and scientists responsible for diagnosing 16x more boys than girls with ADHD because of antiquated diagnostic criteria that were solely based on white teenage boys?
The same top doctors and scientists who treat every woman with abdominal pain as a drama queen while they suffer from ruptured appendices and endometriosis?
The same top doctors and scientists who treat chronically ill patients as drug seeking hypochondriacs instead as people who have been failed by a medical system that does not treat them as reliable witnesses to their own bodies?
There's a certain kind of privilege to be able to hold such confidence in the medical system without having to worry about medical gaslighting and abuse, and then use it to ridicule people who have been subjected to mistreatment.
Make no mistake, I'm pro-vaccination and pro-science. But scientists and doctors are human with human biases, and it is reflected in the quality of care received by people who are the subject of implicit and explicit biases.
- And you know who found out about all those issues? Other doctors and scientists. And not the random weirdo posting on Facebook about herbal tea or homeopathy
  
  Dunno. If you hear on Facebook about someone with the same symptoms as you having success with a different treatment because your doctor is too overworked to read the latest research, is that really a bad thing?

Every once in a very long while a miracle can happen, like when some people called out drinking so much milk daily couldn't be good.

Top of their fields are still human. They have flaws just like the rest of us and the ones who can boast continuous ethical integrity throughout their presumably long careers are very few, if any.
Even though they are the best in their line of work, no domain is spared by deviant interests such as corporate, political or even personal.
And though unlikely the average person will unlock the secrets of the universe, it's still possible, even if they won't realize it at all. Dismissing the plausibility fully is in itself a flawed decision made in part by our own lacking abilities overall.
- You see I was willing to give you a little bit of a concession in that I do agree that it doesn't take a mechanic to realize that the knocking sound in an engine is probably a bad thing. But you would need to be a mechanic or at least mechanically minded to know exactly where in the engine that noise is coming from what part it is what part needs to be fixed how best to go about getting said part that needs to be replaced installing the part and then charging for labor. And while it's true that any one individual is not infallible usually when you get a collective of experts in their field they're not all going to be wrong at once in the same way. And I'm sorry but somebody doing armchair research from their computer at home is not going to be able to suddenly stumble upon the answer that a panel of experts completely ignored.
  
  Historically, a collection of experts wrong all at once in the same way? 1350: the Earth is the center of the universe 1750: remove bad blood by applying leeches 1950: cigarettes are healthy
  are these anomalies? or is grift a feature of a hierarchical research system?
  
  But you would need to be a mechanic or at least mechanically minded to know exactly where in the engine that noise is coming from what part it is what part needs to be fixed how best to go about getting said part that needs to be replaced installing the part and then charging for labor.
  You say this as if people who aren't mechanics or mechanically minded are physically unable to learn these things or deduce them on their own. Is the human brain/mind that limited and obsolete in your view?
  Should I also assume you're in favour of stratification in a sort of caste system where people who are disinclined in a domain shouldn't be allowed to participate because in your eyes they simply can't and they are innately wrong to do so? Or is that me overreaching?
  And while it’s true that any one individual is not infallible usually when you get a collective of experts in their field they’re not all going to be wrong at once in the same way.
  As social animals, it has been proven repeatedly that we will make the wrong choices in order to be a part of a social circle. So regardless of any individual knowledge and actual beliefs, emotional interference can and does have people in a group decide to be wrong at once in the same way.
  I’m sorry but somebody doing armchair research from their computer at home is not going to be able to suddenly stumble upon the answer that a panel of experts completely ignored.
  Disagree. It's extremely unlikely, but not impossible. A clear and relaxed mind with an outside perspective can notice details an involved and burdened mind will subconsciously ignore.
  The armchair expert won't be intricately aware of all the know-how and it's highly likely they will be wrong in most aspects, but as small as it is, there is always a chance they will understand a correct piece that is otherwise dismissed out of hand.

Look, this one article says vaccines make penises smaller. The source is a guy from Kentucky that got his degree from Trump University before it got shut down for fraud!
Here is my source, do your own research:
Htt

You know, sometimes context is important, you know, with memes. But you know, there's a reason why people don't trust institutions anymore, depending on which political spectrum you're a part of or which timeline you want to be dominant. And I would think by now people would have kind of given their faith up on institutions now that we have grabbing by the pussy cheeseburger king as president after the pitiful dementia-ridden poopy pants sleepy Joe Biden.. So I think this meme is kind of limp-dicked.