From (anecdotal-level) observation of examples, the famous LW basilisk is something that you need a string of things going wrong to be upset by: you need to believe certain Sequence memes, you need to believe they string together to imply particular things in a particular way, you need to be smart enough to understand for yourself how they imply what they do, and you need to be obsessive in just the wrong way.
The question then is what to do about it. Freedom of inquiry is absolutely necessary for science as done by mere humans to actually work, but this is not happening for various reasons that seemed good ideas at the time.
From (anecdotal-level) observation of examples, the famous LW basilisk is something that you need a string of things going wrong to be upset by: you need to believe certain Sequence memes, you need to believe they string together to imply particular things in a particular way, you need to be smart enough to understand for yourself how they imply what they do, and you need to be obsessive in just the wrong way.
The question then is what to do about it. Freedom of inquiry is absolutely necessary for science as done by mere humans to actually work, but this is not happening for various reasons that seemed good ideas at the time.
refs: a call to decompartmentalise, as compartmentalisation is in fact an epistemic sin; the dangers of doing so.