Even if Kirsch deserves the credit for that (rather than Stephen B. Jackson or Richard Lyon), I think cranks are somewhat scoped, so for example Linus Pauling was a crank when if came to Vitamin C, but not necessarily a crank on other topics. Even so, when evaluating Linus Pauling from a position of ignorance, I would absolutely not take him at his word regarding other topics once he is clearly shown to be a Vitamin C crank.
Taking anybody at his word instead of thinking critically about what they are saying is no good idea. That’s nothing that I practice or advocate.
I generally do think we would have less of a Great Stagnation if we would would listen as a society more to people like Linus Pauling.
I see no reason here to disregard the Canadian data in favor of an unspecified blog and doctor.
I see no reason why I should do work here to shift your belief, I was just open about why I argue the way I do. If you would however be interested in having accurate beliefs, then understanding how data is produced instead of just taking it at face value is generally good.
What’s to understand? The government ran a survey and routinely asked people getting vaccinated if they would like to take it (privately, link sent by email). I took it. I saw the survey questions, I saw the results. If it were up to me the questions would have been more specific, but the results are what they are.
If the government runs a survey, not everyone is going to tell the government about what goes on with them. It’s really not any different in the kind of error that someone who takes the VAERS death numbers on face value makes instead of trying to understand what those numbers actually mean.
Right. They have significant side effects but lie on the survey because...? Or maybe you’re saying they refuse to do the survey at all.
But then, why didn’t they lie or refuse in the unnamed information sources you advocated?
Of course I could tell a story where people who don’t have side effects forget about the survey and don’t bother to report their absence of side effects, but you’re going to like your story better, so that makes your story the true one. And also the size of the bias you’re assuming exists would have to be enormous, but whatever.
Taking anybody at his word instead of thinking critically about what they are saying is no good idea. That’s nothing that I practice or advocate.
I generally do think we would have less of a Great Stagnation if we would would listen as a society more to people like Linus Pauling.
I see no reason why I should do work here to shift your belief, I was just open about why I argue the way I do. If you would however be interested in having accurate beliefs, then understanding how data is produced instead of just taking it at face value is generally good.
What’s to understand? The government ran a survey and routinely asked people getting vaccinated if they would like to take it (privately, link sent by email). I took it. I saw the survey questions, I saw the results. If it were up to me the questions would have been more specific, but the results are what they are.
If the government runs a survey, not everyone is going to tell the government about what goes on with them. It’s really not any different in the kind of error that someone who takes the VAERS death numbers on face value makes instead of trying to understand what those numbers actually mean.
Right. They have significant side effects but lie on the survey because...? Or maybe you’re saying they refuse to do the survey at all.
But then, why didn’t they lie or refuse in the unnamed information sources you advocated?
Of course I could tell a story where people who don’t have side effects forget about the survey and don’t bother to report their absence of side effects, but you’re going to like your story better, so that makes your story the true one. And also the size of the bias you’re assuming exists would have to be enormous, but whatever.