[CaptWillard]

In 2023, labeling people as "conspiracy theorists" is a much bigger red flag for the (deliberately or not) misinformed than urging someone to "do your own research".

In fact, I struggle to see how "do your own research" would be a reliable way to spread misinformation.

Can you provide an example of how that works? Even a hypothetical?

[colpabar]

I'll give an example that I'm sure the gp did not have in mind, but it's one that I see somewhat often. If you ever ask a question online about trans ideology, such as a basic question about biology like "do trans woman menstrate?", a lot of people will say things like "it's not my job to educate you."

I personally hate that response. If you truly believe something is true, and you believe that you have evidence to back it up, you would show that evidence every chance you get.

Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should have some understanding of why they think the things they do, which should require "doing your own research" to some extent. But people who make bold claims and defer to telling people to do your own research without any kind of source for their claims is probably doing so because said claims don't have great evidence to back them up.

I do agree that the people that tell you not to do your own research and just appeal to authority shouldn't are the bad guys. "Do your own research" should be like saying "I am not a lawyer, but" - it should be used as a disclaimer of sorts after presenting an explanation of why you think your claim is true. "Here's what I think, here's why, but I could be wrong, so you should look into it yourself too."

[dTal]

Why are you even asking "basic questions about biology"?

"It's not my job to educate you" is a response borne of extreme frustration with being repeatedly asked the same basic questions (that can easily be answered with Google), to the point of being suspicious that the questioner is acting in good faith. A common pattern is someone "playing innocent" in order to bait a Socratic dialogue out of someone. If you get this line often, it would be worth some self-reflection.

>If you truly believe something is true, and you believe that you have evidence to back it up, you would show that evidence every chance you get.

Meh. After being asked why I think the Earth is round for the hundredth time, with the most carefully considered answers invariably failing to convince my interlocutors, I'm now inclined to tell them to bugger off instead of wasting my energy. It's basically the fail2ban mitigation to DoS attacks.

[m_reiko]

> If you ever ask a question online about trans ideology, such as a basic question about biology like "do trans woman menstrate?", a lot of people will say things like "it's not my job to educate you."

That surely can't be a question asked in good faith though? Both the asker and the answerer will know that it is impossible for transwomen to menstruate, because they are male. So such a hostile response must be a slighter politer version of telling the asker to quit with the bullshit questions and piss off.

[colpabar]

> it is impossible for transwomen to menstruate, because they are male

I hate to break it to you, but what you just said is transphobic. You're probably confused and don't believe me, and wish I would produce evidence. I don't want to get too off topic, so I will just say - wouldn't it be really annoying if all I said was "please educate yourself / do your own research"? That was my point.

also nice throwaway lol

[ruszki]

My own research tells me that your question cannot be in good faith. Google tells pretty clearly, that menstruation means a different thing with similar aspects. If you had asked that in good faith you would have definitely used the expression “menstruation symptoms”.

[m_reiko]

Males can't have any type of menstruation though, or symptoms of it, as they lack the requisite body parts. It's just not physically possible.

So I think this must be a question used to point out to transwomen that they are not female. Which I expect many would get annoyed about and give a snappy answer to, as they want to be female and probably don't want to be reminded that they never really can be.

[ruszki]

Just type it in Google, and after that reread my comment. We agree.