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Old 29th May 2014, 09:20 PM   #4300
d4m10n
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Sexual misconduct allegations against Radford, Shermer, et al.

Originally Posted by Brive1987 View Post
But here we have an unruly scramble for the fence and the lack of a firm provisional opinion that comes down firmly on one side or the other.

Why is that bad? The fence can be a perfectly comfortable place to be for those with a bit of epistemic caution. Why the need for partisanship? It's not as if we're organising a conference this summer and have to decide right now whom (not) to invite.

I've been catching flak for not taking sides on Shermer over at B&W, even though the only named eyewitness (whose actual words they can produce) is Dr. Gay herself, and she didn't even name names in her blogpost — now there is an oddly recurrent motif. The FtB horde also demands partisanship in the face of what seems to be insufficient testimony. “Believe Carrie Poppy!” is their battle cry, as if hearsay gets stronger when it is alleged to be in some court documents somewhere. They might well be right about what happened but they are surely wrong to assume they can prove it even to a preponderance of the evidence, much less the level of certitude required to ethically set out to ruin someone professionally.

Just because we really want to take sides in something doesn't mean the world is obligated to give us enough information to do so rationally and well. It's not all Aliens, Bigfeet and Chupacabras out there.
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Last edited by d4m10n; 29th May 2014 at 09:22 PM.
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