this post was submitted on 25 May 2024
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As a young scientist who's yet to gain PhD:
Absolutely do challenge scientists, no matter your qualification. Sometimes (granted, that's rare) you might be right.
Just do it in a respectful way and make sure you check your arguments.
Also, while scientists are generally more educated overall, they can absolutely be foolish in what falls outside their scope. "I'm a scientist" is not a valid argument.
And yes, always check for a conflict of interest.
There is a difference between informed skepticism and motivated skepticism or skepticism from ignorance. Informed skepticism is good. That's what solid science is based on. Being skeptical because the conclusions don't align with what you believe or because you don't actually understand what is going on is bad.
That's something I wish more people would actually give some thought to. As someone from a group who gets discussed ad nauseum in the media it really is the case that a lot of the skeptical people that become our problem really don't have a personal data point for us. So many assumptions are made with things we theorize about but do not personally know. For us it can become plain very quickly when someone has never really interacted directly with us and are just operating on assumptions. I think the world is generally a better place when one is willing to be humble about what they choose to be skeptical about. Admitting to yourself and others that something is at present and maybe forever beyond your ken isn't a weakness. It's a strength.
This sounds like what a lot of neurodivergent people like myself deal with. eg. ADHD, Autism etc. Lots of people talking on our behalf that aren't actually neurodivergent themselves.
Autism and ADHD definitely fits that bill. A lot of my friends are on the spectrum. I am a Non-binary trans person so a lot of the people I know IRL who also identify as Non-binary trans are autistic but I ended up with just ADHD. Still it makes me angry to hear my friends talked about as though they are a problem that was caused by somebody's lack of oversight. They are incredible, funny, loving, worthwhile people to know. They struggle and it's not always okay but that doesn't make them a "problem".
I get a dose of the same nonsense when I tell people that I am non-binary on here. People's immediate assumption is I am very young. That I will "change my mind". That all non-binary people are flighty star chidren who want to live in a land of make believe, feel special or be lavished with attention and it's so frustrating. I am 38. I knew I was trans since I was 21...I think barring an extreme brain injury I'm pretty set in my ways. I am told that I am at times infuriatingly practical. I worked in crews with fairly conservative people for three and a half years straight being rehired for the gig when they had plenty of opportunities to ditch me. None of whom have any idea I'm enby. If they suspect anything with the name change they never said. I think being non-binary is functionally one of the least interesting things about me. It says very little about my personality and interests. When conservative people do talk to me on platforms a lot of them cannot reconcile me with their assumptions of trans people. They might label me "one of the good ones" ... which believe me really doesn't feel great to hear them say... but that's how they rationalize the disconnect. Their pride demands not that that they review whether their skeptism is misplaced but instead I must be the exception that proves the rule. Ignoring that I know a fair number of other trans people my age and I am more similar to them than not.
It took a long fucking time for doctors to stop talking to me like I'm a damn child, thankfully things have gotten better.. But I recall a time when doctors straight up refused to speak to me directly about my health issues or would use small words and talk very slowly.
A lot of the time they'd start out talking normal, see my diagnosis on the chart, and suddenly I was "five" in their eyes and nothing I could say would change that, they'd just assume I "heard that on TV!"
Thank God that Rainman doesn't seem to be the public perception of Autism anymore.
Now when they see that, they just ask if I have a safe living situation and a good support network.