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MIT study infiltrates Covid lockdown/mask skeptic groups and finds that they're... smart
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:27 am
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:27 am
Twitter thread with quotes
The Study
Some highlights:
And the conclusion does something really odd after all of this. They say that this data analysis is BAD!
TL;DR: Someone summarized nicely.
The Study
quote:
MIT researchers 'infiltrated' a Covid skeptics community a few months ago and found that skeptics place a high premium on data analysis and empiricism.
"Most fundamentally, the groups we studied believe that science is a process, and not an institution."
Some highlights:
quote:
"Indeed, anti-maskers often reveal themselves to be more sophisticated in their understanding of how scientific knowledge is socially constructed than their ideological adversaries, who espouse naïve realism about the “objective” truth of public health data."
quote:
"In other words, anti-maskers value unmediated access to information and privilege personal research and direct reading over “expert” interpretations."
quote:
"For these anti-mask users, their approach to the pandemic is grounded in more scientific rigor, not less."
quote:
"While these groups highly value scientific expertise, they also see collective analysis of data as a way to bring communities together within a time of crisis, and being able to transparently and dispassionately analyze the data is crucial for democratic governance."
"In fact, the explicit motivation for many of these followers is to find information so that they can make the best decisions for their families—and by extension, for the communities around them."
"The message that runs through these threads is unequivocal: that data is the only way to set fear-bound politicians straight, and using better data is a surefire way towards creating a safer community."
quote:
"Arguing anti-maskers need more scientific literacy is to characterize their approach as uninformed & inexplicably extreme. This study shows the opposite: they are deeply invested in forms of critique & knowledge production they recognize as markers of scientific expertise"
quote:
"We argue that anti-maskers’ deep story draws from similar wells of resentment, but adds a particular emphasis on the usurpation of scientific knowledge by a paternalistic, condescending elite that expects intellectual subservience rather than critical thinking from the public."
And the conclusion does something really odd after all of this. They say that this data analysis is BAD!
quote:
And yet in the conclusion they lament "the skeptical impulse that the 'science simply isn’t settled,' prompting people to simply 'think for themselves” to horrifying ends."
They then compare it to the January 6 Capitol riot.
Bizarre and fascinating document.
TL;DR: Someone summarized nicely.
quote:
This paper is absolutely wild.
"We studied why people reject masks and lockdowns, discovered that they are scientifically literate and engage in intelligent deep-data analysis. This is terrifying, because it means we can't scare them into compliance like we can other groups."
This post was edited on 5/12/21 at 8:30 am
24
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:30 am to ell_13
Sooooooo..... I’m still not wearing a fricking mask.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:32 am to ell_13
quote:
"We argue that anti-maskers’ deep story draws from similar wells of resentment, but adds a particular emphasis on the usurpation of scientific knowledge by a paternalistic, condescending elite that expects intellectual subservience rather than critical thinking from the public."
Nothing scares or pisses off a leftist more than someone who has the ability and wherewithal to think for them self.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:32 am to ell_13
quote:
the groups we studied believe that science is a process, and not an institution
Anyone with even a remote amount of intelligence understands this statement.
"The science is settled" is one of the stupidest fricking statements someone can make.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:33 am to ell_13
Oh, the horror...
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:34 am to ell_13
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:37 am to Darth_Vader
Babylon bee stuff right there
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:40 am to ell_13
Lol i dont think the study means what you think it does
quote:
This paper has investigated anti-mask counter-visualizations on social media in two ways: quantitatively, we identify the main types of visualizations that are present within different networks (e.g., proand anti-mask users), and we show that anti-mask users are prolific and skilled purveyors of data visualizations. These visualizations are popular, use orthodox visualization methods, and are promulgated as a way to convince others that public health measures are unnecessary. In our qualitative analysis, we use an ethnographic approach to illustrate how COVID counter-visualizations actually reflect a deeper epistemological rift about the role of data in public life, and that the practice of making counter-visualizations reflects a participatory, heterodox approach to information sharing. Convincing anti-maskers to support public health measures in the age of COVID-19 will require more than “better” visualizations, data literacy campaigns, or increased public access to data. Rather, it requires a sustained engagement with the social world of visualizations and the people who make or interpret them.
While academic science is traditionally a system for producing knowledge within a laboratory, validating it through peer review, and sharing results within subsidiary communities, anti-maskers reject this hierarchical social model. They espouse a vision of science that is radically egalitarian and individualist. This study forces us to see that coronavirus skeptics champion science as a personal practice that prizes rationality and autonomy; for them, it is not a body of knowledge certified by an institution of experts. Calls for data or scientific literacy therefore risk recapitulating narratives that anti-mask views are the product of individual ignorance rather than coordinated information campaigns that rely heavily on networked participation. Recognizing the systemic dynamics that contribute to this epistemological rift is the first step towards grappling with this phenomenon, and the findings presented in this paper corroborate similar studies about the impact of fake news on American evangelical voters [98] and about the limitations of fact-checking climate change denialism [42].
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:41 am to ell_13
Yes, but the sheep of the OT have told us that we’re all just dumb rednecks.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:41 am to Centinel
This is so obvious if you really listen to sane people. The media does not interview sane people in order to direct their/the government’s narrative. Since the epidemic began, the number of epidemiologists and virologists in the country has exploded, so it seems. They’re all giving “opinions” without any data or research to reference. Their are many people who use common sense and good judgment to make decisions on their own. Then.....we have the sheep.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:42 am to ell_13
You know people should be skeptical about what the government health figures say after they came out in early 2020 saying the public should not wear masks--because they wanted to keep the limited mask supply for healthcare workers, which might be reasonable, but the explanation was a lie. And of course now having everyone wear masks is so important. With their credibility gone, skepticism is very appropriate.
You know you're getting a BS clickbait story when the Internet headline says, "Science says ...." And I say that considering myself something of an amateur scientist with a strong technical background from both formal education and work experience. Science is indeed a process of developing and evolving knowledge, which occasionally shows what 'science' supposedly told us to be wrong.
But I've got to say, covid has caused so many people on all sides of the ideological spectrum / political inclination to spout their limited to poor understandings about 'science' that they don't have the background or information to comprehend.
You know you're getting a BS clickbait story when the Internet headline says, "Science says ...." And I say that considering myself something of an amateur scientist with a strong technical background from both formal education and work experience. Science is indeed a process of developing and evolving knowledge, which occasionally shows what 'science' supposedly told us to be wrong.
But I've got to say, covid has caused so many people on all sides of the ideological spectrum / political inclination to spout their limited to poor understandings about 'science' that they don't have the background or information to comprehend.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:43 am to ell_13
It takes a real genius to figure out cloth masks can't stop and airborne expelled virus.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:44 am to High C
quote:
Yes, but the sheep of the OT have told us that we’re all just dumb rednecks.
People who blindly follow authority are unintelligent.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:45 am to hubertcumberdale
quote:So not only are they good at interpreting data, they're good at sharing it.
we show that anti-mask users are prolific and skilled purveyors of data visualizations. These visualizations are popular, use orthodox visualization methods, and are promulgated as a way to convince others that public health measures are unnecessary.
quote:There's a similar quote in the OP. These people educate themselves and learn to read the source and interpret it for themselves instead of relying on talking heads and articles where journalists have agendas.
They espouse a vision of science that is radically egalitarian and individualist. This study forces us to see that coronavirus skeptics champion science as a personal practice that prizes rationality and autonomy; for them, it is not a body of knowledge certified by an institution of experts
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:45 am to ell_13
So basically they’re not being brainwashed by MSM and did their own research on the subject?
Sounds like what most Conservatives have been saying for over a year.
Sounds like what most Conservatives have been saying for over a year.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:45 am to ShermanTxTiger
The Most Holy Pope Fauci the Magnificent, leader of the Church of the Masked Covidian, has spoken peasant.
Wear your mask.
Wear your mask.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:46 am to Centinel
quote:
"The science is settled" is one of the stupidest fricking statements someone can make.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:50 am to ell_13
Soyboi's wont like this one bit.
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:53 am to ell_13
MIT big mad that they have literally no explanation for this graph:
Posted on 5/12/21 at 8:56 am to ell_13
so I just read the entire paper (yes I'm that bored)
a couple of things
- It talks about something that has always fascinated me, which is how people are able to see the same set of data and come to vastly different conclusions. This paper laments on how to effectively get everyone on the same page, but that is pretty much impossible, which the paper also admits.
- The paper discusses how science, as a whole, treats the general public as dumb and how that leads to distrust from the general public.
- It doesn't say that objective analysis is "bad", as the OP describes, but describes this particular objective analysis as mostly uninformed and based on mistrust, as in the analysis often ignores data that in deemed as "biased", which is often deemed biased based off their own biases.
It doesn't really say anything new to me. Data can, and always will be able to be interpreted multiple ways. People can read the same sentence and one person will think its the worst thing in the world while another person thinks its an amazing thought.
If anything, this paper is simply telling scientists to stop treating the general public as morons.
a couple of things
- It talks about something that has always fascinated me, which is how people are able to see the same set of data and come to vastly different conclusions. This paper laments on how to effectively get everyone on the same page, but that is pretty much impossible, which the paper also admits.
- The paper discusses how science, as a whole, treats the general public as dumb and how that leads to distrust from the general public.
- It doesn't say that objective analysis is "bad", as the OP describes, but describes this particular objective analysis as mostly uninformed and based on mistrust, as in the analysis often ignores data that in deemed as "biased", which is often deemed biased based off their own biases.
It doesn't really say anything new to me. Data can, and always will be able to be interpreted multiple ways. People can read the same sentence and one person will think its the worst thing in the world while another person thinks its an amazing thought.
If anything, this paper is simply telling scientists to stop treating the general public as morons.
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