[dboat]

Now you've changed your tack to take on the publishing process itself. That was a mistake.

> it's an appeal to authority

You are misusing the phrase "appeal to authority." Citing a published paper is absolutely NOT an appeal to authority, it is the polar opposite, and the distinction between those two things is the fundamental property of the scientific method.

With published papers, you don't have to trust in authority because the methodology and data are right there to be examined by all. The peer review and credibility are valuable and have weight because anyone caught falsifying data would lose their entire career in an instant. This is also why we don't just accept any old journal, as many simply allow anyone to publish as long as they pay.

To see an example of what an appeal to authority actually is, we need look no further then the second half of your comment. Linking to an interview of an expert in her field giving her opinion is what an appeal to authority actually is. Ironic.

You tried to paint an equivalence between our sources, but all you did was reveal that you do not understand how scientific progress is made. This is no longer an argument, at this point I'm educating you on what you should have learned before ever taking a stance on the subject of vaccinations.

If you can't even accept why credible, published papers carry more weight than appeals to authority, and can't understand what an appeal to authority is after it has been explained to you twice, then conversing with you is pointless.

[RobertRoberts]

>You are misusing the phrase "appeal to authority." Citing a published paper is absolutely NOT an appeal to authority, it is the polar opposite, and the distinction between those two things is the fundamental property of the scientific method.

It is a perfectly valid argument if you are saying it's _only_ method of scientific proof.

[dboat]

Why are you trying to talk about scientific proof? You don't even know how science works. Cat's out of the bag.

You know what? I'm done getting played. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, I and others gave you every opportunity to learn, but all you can do is dig in.

This is my last reply, if you want the last word that badly after this you can have it. If that is enough to let you think you won, then you can enjoy that too. Just remember that this subject is not like other debates in life.

You can let your stubbornness express itself most of the time quite harmlessly, but if you ever convince someone who doesn't know how to verify the science for themselves, the consequences are on you.

No joke, no exaggeration, you really are a bad person.