From COVID-19 to climate change, scientists are facing a flood of hate mail, threats and harassment from conspiracy theorists.
Scientists are bearing the brunt of this, but it is very much everyone’s problem. The people being harassed are doing things we urgently need them to do. That includes things like warning us about about immediate dangers, telling us what precautions we need to take, and doing research that could lead to workarounds and solutions to the problems themselves.
We need to speak against this. We need to act against this. And we need to change the system to provide protections and remedies. Otherwise we are all going to suffer.
Speaking does not stop those who are willing to harass and intimidate those who are working to improve our world. They cannot be reasoned with because they are categorically unreasonable.
I will leave what actually DOES work to your imagination. Cowards are cowardly.
I think you underestimate the degree to which they are cowardly. They gain confidence from superior numbers, but one-on-one, or crowd vs crowd, a lot of them can be put off by speech or other non-violent means. I think that deep down a lot of them know what they are doing is wrong, even though they tell themselves otherwise.
Non-violent resistance has a long history and has often been effective. As an example, the fight for civil rights was not won because the progressives usually managed to beat up the racists. The progressives were largely non-violent. The racists were routinely violent, but they still lost.
It takes a lot of bravery to oppose someone who may try to hurt you. Some of us will get hurt. It shouldn’t be necessary, but if we want this to stop we will have to take some risks. (There’s nothing wrong with avoiding high-risk situations, but some risk is necessary.)
Personally, I am also okay with defending yourself if you are attacked. Non-violence is always better, but I doubt I could remain passive if faced with physical violence.
All of your points are absolutely valid because it’s definitely difficult to find the gumption to stand in the way of raucous bastard.
Once you find it, it just becomes a righteous way to become the raucous bastard.
Dont get me wrong, I’m no billy badass that goes looking for trouble, but SOMEBODY has to do it - and after the first guy does it, you’d be surprised how many somebodies will help.
I love chaos, and will gladly spend the night in jail, or a couple weeks in a cast to cause the people who inflict fear to become fearful. It’s the only way they learn.
You see this even on much smaller scales, like trying having an honest conversation about veganism and it’s benefits on the internet, people get so mad and absolutely refuse to acknowledge reality.
It feels like a lot of people don’t even want to think about the argument of the person on the other side. Its almost like they are afraid of trying to understand.
This is a spot on observation. There’s a guy on TikTok that talks about healthy masculinity that really resonates with me and talks about this exact phenomenon and how it harms us all. The video I link here really nails it. He puts into words what I’ve always felt. His examples are based in politics, and his expansion is based on interpersonal relationships.
Huge caveat, though: this only works when speaking to people in good faith. And it isn’t always easy to spot when someone is speaking in good faith or in bad faith, especially when we’re talking about subjects that effect us directly. The quote about anti-Semites not being unaware of the absurdity of their comments comes to mind.
Understanding would mean admitting that they themselves might have been acting wrongly and that they should change.
Admitting your own faults is hard and change is scary.
It sucks how hard it is to have honest and good faith conversations.
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People…what a bunch of bastards.
Damned humans! They ruined humanity!
Oh well, we have AI now. Maybe we can build a better replacement.
The oil industry is facing its own extinction, so of course this well-funded hate-fest is just getting escalated. Their desperation is frankly pathetic and obvious.
I would blame this on the anonymity of the internet but people are doing it with their real names and faces. What a strange time
Personally, it’s been the same as before the pandemic. Loons and goons are always frustrated and paranoid when a public health person reaches out to them. Like, all you gotta say is “I don’t want to share information with you” and I’m like no worries, carry on. But they just need to vent and scream and threaten and exert whatever power they think they have. Sure, other professions have it worse. But I just view as a perk of the job to be everyone’s verbal punching bag.
I feel like we’ll see the same thing with AI soon: people in denial about its capabilities and impacts
Beware of anger.
Conspiracy theorists intimidate scientists with anger, but their anger is a bluff to overcome the fear that lies deep within them.
Likewise, defenders of scientists need to stop reacting with fear-based anger against conspiracy theorists.
We need to put aside our anger and just discuss the facts in a straightforward manner to advance science.the issue here is that the ‘opposition’, for lack of a better word, is thoroughly disinterested in facts. any discussion of the facts is reasonable, don’t get me wrong. but most people advocating against climate change- or anything else, for that matter- are not on about the science or the facts.
in those cases, the only real way to ‘get through’ to them is find somebody who has some close relationship that holds their respect, and have them talk with them. Beyond that… they’re pretty much goners.
They give conspiracy theorists a bad name.
Did conspiracy theorists ever have a good name?
“Nutjobs” sounds like a good name.
Nut job sounds like a Pixar movie involving 2 squirrels, a chipmunk and a hamster trying to break into the planters’ peanut whatehouse.
Sure back when it was the British and American aristocracies coming up with shadowy organizations that must have perpetrated the French revolution.
Doesn’t seem to be tarnished when Smedly Butler unveiled the business plot, nor when the Pentagon papers leaked or evidence of MKULTRA was discovered. Then all the sudden right around the time they stopped teaching humanities at public schools all these groups appeared with very specific very laughable conspiracies they were blindly dedicated to.
And now it’s just shorthand for pedophile racist.
Hate emails and threads are never OK. In their defense, what happened during the COVID-19 lock downs wasn’t OK. How we treated each other was not ok. How we excluded and refused people just like that was not ok. And how the government could wield so much power was just scary to watch.
Rent off.
What are you referring to when you say “what happened during the COVID-19 lock downs wasn’t OK.”?
Mandating that people act safely during a global pandemic is definitely okay.
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l’m not an anti vaxer. I however couldn’t take the vaccine due to my illness. But there was no room for those exceptions. I was threaded horribly within my country (Netherlands).
For example, I couldn’t even sit down and order something to drink on very very hot day.
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I want to believe you. See also my comment below.
I rather don’t like to go further in detail. I just closed this topic for myself.
