Science is Politicized

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PsychicEcho
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Iscritto: 04/05/2020

The mainstream media's true mandate is propaganda and population control. The mainstream sciences are at the mercy of the same agendas. They can rig the tests and methodologies and data to make any results they want.

andyprough
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Iscritto: 02/12/2015

> They can rig the tests and methodologies and data to make any results they want.

Part of that is the widespread faith in a "statistical ritual" and "associated delusions" in many sciences. (Gerd Gigerenzer, 2018, Statistical Rituals: The Replication Delusion and How We Got There) [1]

It's a very interesting phenomenon. From the author of the article:
"The “replication crisis” has been attributed to misguided external incentives gamed by researchers (the strategic-game hypothesis). Here, I want to draw attention to a complementary internal factor, namely, researchers’ widespread faith in a statistical ritual and associated delusions (the statistical-ritual hypothesis). The “null ritual,” unknown in statistics proper, eliminates judgment precisely at points where statistical theories demand it. The crucial delusion is that the p value specifies the probability of a successful replication (i.e., 1 – p), which makes replication studies appear to be superfluous. A review of studies with 839 academic psychologists and 991 students shows that the replication delusion existed among 20% of the faculty teaching statistics in psychology, 39% of the professors and lecturers, and 66% of the students. Two further beliefs, the illusion of certainty (e.g., that statistical significance proves that an effect exists) and Bayesian wishful thinking (e.g., that the probability of the alternative hypothesis being true is 1 – p), also make successful replication appear to be certain or almost certain, respectively. In every study reviewed, the majority of researchers (56%–97%) exhibited one or more of these delusions."

The author gives a good example of the problems associated with this misuse of "statistical rituals":
"Every couple of weeks, the media proclaim the discovery of a new tumor marker that promises to improve personalized diagnosis or even treatment of cancer. As swift a pace as this seems, tumor research in fact produces many more discoveries. On average, four or five studies on cancer markers are published daily, almost all of them reporting at least one statistically significant prognostic marker (Ioannidis et al., 2014). Nonetheless, few of these results have been replicated and translated into clinical practice. When a team of 100 scientists at biotech company Amgen tried to replicate the findings of 53 “landmark” articles, they succeeded for only 6. Similarly, when the pharmaceutical company Bayer examined 67 projects on oncology, women’s health, and cardiovascular medicine, they were able to replicate the results in only 14 cases (Mullard, 2011; Prinz, Schlange, & Asadullah, 2011).1 In the United States alone, irreproducible preclinical research slowing down the discovery of life-saving therapies and cures has been estimated as costing $28 billion annually (Freedman, Cockburn, & Simcoe, 2015). The recently discovered fact that so many published results are apparently false alarms has been baptized the “replication crisis.”

[1] https://www2.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/pubdata/gigerenzer/Gigerenzer_2018_Statistical_rituals.pdf
DOI: 10.1177/2515245918771329

PsychicEcho
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Iscritto: 04/05/2020

There's my main man. I'm not very good with scientific research. Thanks for the backup.

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Iscritto: 07/24/2010

Frequent misuses of statistical hypothesis testing do not back conspiracy theories up. Conspiracy theorists do not even test their hypotheses. They somehow cannot: they interpret any contradicting fact as a confirmation that there is a conspiracy.

After 1.3 million deaths worldwide (60,000 last week), you still write that "this corona virus is a hoax". People in front of a screen only showing them what like-minded people write can really completely ignore reality at some point. Even whole governments, including the one where I live (Brazil). The president even commemorates when he manages to suspend the testing of a COVID-19 vaccine, for absolutely no good medical reason. The consequences are terrifying.

Do you also believe that HIV does not cause AIDS? That antiretroviral drugs are toxic? That was the conspiracy theory the South African government adopted in the early 2000s. It blocked foreign donations of such drugs and instead promoted vitamins, the equivalent chloroquine the Brazilian government is still presenting as a cure, despite all evidences. Result:

More than 330,000 lives or approximately 2.2 million person-years were lost because a feasible and timely ARV treatment program was not implemented in South Africa. Thirty-five thousand babies were born with HIV, resulting in 1.6 million person-years lost by not implementing a mother-to-child transmission prophylaxis program using nevirapine. The total lost benefits of ARVs are at least 3.8 million person-years for the period 2000–2005.
https://cdn2.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2015/06/Lost_Benefits.pdf

The bullshit you propagate has deadly consequences. Please, stop it.

andyprough
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Iscritto: 02/12/2015

> vitamins, the equivalent chloroquine

False equivalency.

Magic Banana

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Iscritto: 07/24/2010

I am not sure what you exactly mean. Maybe you mean that:

  • unlike vitamins, chloroquine has not yet been presented as an alternative to an effective cure (but that may be the case when COVID-19 vaccines will be available);
  • unlike vitamins prescribed in a country where many people need them (for reasons unrelated to AIDS), chloroquine comes with grave adverse effects;
  • unlike chloroquine, which has clearly shown no benefit against COVID-19, vitamins (more precisely B-complex vitamins and vitamins C and E) were thought at the time to provide some benefits (it has since been shown to not reduce mortality in adults living with HIV).

All those differences do indeed exist.

andyprough
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Iscritto: 02/12/2015

I did not mean any of those things. I stand by my comment.

Magic Banana

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Iscritto: 07/24/2010

A comment without any substance if you do not care to explain. I was of course not referring to a mathematical equivalency: I have just pointed out three differences between the two situations. "Analog to" would have been a better wording than "equivalent to".

nadebula.1984
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Iscritto: 05/01/2018

Surely, as parts of superstructure, education and research must serve the economic base, i.e., the economic base serving the ruling class. Therefore, in class societies, everything is politicized, even if the governments say that it's not.

commodore256
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Iscritto: 01/10/2013

Same with Science Fiction.

Usually if it's a Sci-Fi utopia like Star Trek, they imply it's because the world is run by DemSocs.

Usually if it's dystopian, it's usually implied it's because the world isn't run by DemSocs. Yeah, stuff like Warhammer 40k, but that game franchise is written by somebody who believes in economic planning. The Imperium of Man would be very lucky to last 100 years, let alone 10,000 years, the USSR didn't even last 70 years and Russia only exists as a nation because it gets funding from the UN.

I wonder if most Sci-Fi writers are DemSocs. Yeah, there's Cory Doctorow, but his stuff never turns into a live action franchise. There's at least more political diversity Japanese Sci-Fi, but they're for the most part just anti-imperialism, but have diverse political narratives on top of that.

Masaru Suzuqi -under review-
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Iscritto: 06/06/2018

I don't understand well what you are talking about but stop the fight. Here forum is a symbol of piece of this world.

PsychicEcho
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Iscritto: 04/05/2020

We are peaceful. I still consider you all friends, even if we disagree.

Even before Corona virus, a person dies in this world every second or two.

It is difficult to argue this, because people see you as being insensitive to death and suffering.

There are many things to worry about. Some things are more apparent than others.