• Chris Kavanagh recently tweeted about Scott Alexander’s article on Ivermectin, criticizing the rationalist community for ignoring conspiracy ecosystems and how they distort things.
• Rachel responded to Chris’ tweet, suggesting that the article may have persuaded some people to get vaccinated instead of taking Ivermectin.
• Chris responded to Rachel, saying that his critique was orientated towards the rationalist community and what it says it does vs. what he sees.
• The author shares a personal story of how he was once a believer in a conspiracy theory, and how anti-conspiracy bloggers and podcasters could have saved him from a five year wild-goose-chase, but chose not to.
• Kavanagh’s criticism of the author’s 25,000 word essay on ivermectin is accepted, but not from him, as he has devoted his career to the subject.
• The author interprets Kavanagh’s comment as suggesting that it is a mistake to even try to evaluate the evidence, as it suggests there might be evidence on both sides.
• The author points out that there were actually thirty different studies that supported ivermectin, and it was adopted in several countries.
• The author compares Kavanagh’s comment to fideism, the belief that someone who reasons their way to belief in God is a sinner.
• The author argues that the PR argument of Kavanagh’s comment looks bad, as it suggests that doing good science is a near occasion of sin for doing bad science.
• The author argues that conspiracy theorists have the same biases as everyone else, but are slightly worse at applying CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
• The author uses the example of premenstrual dysphoric disorder to illustrate how it is not obvious how to apply the heuristic “trust experts”, and how both sides were trying to make the reader short-circuit their thought process.
• The author argues that it is important to have tolerance for others forming their own opinions, and for science communicators to help guide people through this process.
Published February 15, 2023
Visit Astral Codex Ten to read Scott Alexander’s original post Contra Kavanagh On Fideism