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by thesimpsons1022 3471 days ago
NDT's political views could be informed by science though. One party clearly does deny science and from purely that perspective one could make an informed decision. Furthermore, knowing that someone is intelligent likely to reason about politics does influence me to put more weight in what they say than otherwise. Of course one should also examine the arguments themselves but one can be a little more certain they are well thought out and worth examining if they come from certain sources.
1 comments
ceejayoz 3471 days ago
> NDT's political views could be informed by science though.

Sure, but those political views probably shouldn't be given extra weight just because he's a scientist unless they're directly related to his field.

As an example, he's had some misfires on biology: https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/708427052433678336

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peteretep 3470 days ago 

    > shouldn't be given extra
    > weight just because he's
    > a scientist
Don't they get him over the (admittedly fairly low) bar of "able to think rationaly"?
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buzzybee 3470 days ago
Only within topics where he has developed a sense of self-critique. It's commonplace for people to have a strong ability to be able to work through a situation rationally when it's not also tied to something in their emotions. And when someone has developed expertise they also have a common understanding with other experts. So NDT can speak with some authority on some science topics that he has directly studied. That does not make him a political scientist or philosopher, though, or even a competent student outside of his field.
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ceejayoz 3470 days ago
> Don't they get him over the (admittedly fairly low) bar of "able to think rationaly"

Not necessarily. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nobel_disease

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