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by rectang 2405 days ago
Asserting that an article is "sprinkled with claims that go a bit too far" calls into question what the reader may have learned. It does not build upon the article, like a popularizer would, but first tears it down.

Then, to restore the reader's sense of mastery over the material, it's proposed that they grok a significantly more esoteric perspective.

1 comments

I'm just trying to understand... is your beef here with the particular choice of verbiage?

(FWIW, I think it's absolutely right to call into question what the reader may have learned if an article is misleading. We can argue about wording, etc., but accuracy is important, I feel. Now, Lies-to-Children[0] certainly have their place, but they must be fundamentally accurate even if simplified.)

[0] I think I first heard of this concept in the Science of Discworld books...?