You contrast the contrarian with the “obsessive autist”, but what if the contrarian also happens to be an obsessive autist?
I agree that obsessively diving into the details is a good way to find the truth. But that comes from diving into the details, not anything related to mainstream consensus vs contrarianism. It feels like you’re trying to claim that mainstream consensus is built on the back of obsessive autism, yet you didn’t quite get there?
Is it actually true that mainstream consensus is built on the back of obsessive autism? I think the best argument for that being true would be something like:
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Prestige academia is full of obsessive autists. Thus the consensus in prestige academia comes from diving into the details.
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Prestige academia writes press releases that are picked up by news media and become mainstream consensus. Science journalism is actually good.
BTW, the reliability of mainstream consensus is to some degree a self-defying prophecy. The more trustworthy people believe the consensus to be, the less likely they are to think critically about it, and the less reliable it becomes.
As a quick point— McDonald’s fryers are not turned off as much as you think. At a 24 hour location, the fry/hash oil never turns off. The chicken fryer might be turned off between 4am and 11am if there’s no breakfast item containing chicken. Often it just gets left on so no one can forget to turn it on.
One thing to consider also, is the burnt food remaining in the fryers for many hours. Additionally, oil topped up between changes.
I don’t remember how often we changed the oil but I thought it was once per week. It was a 24 hour location