Yarium wrote:
Regardless of posts like that, it is the duty of a skeptic and truth-seeker to give consideration to all scientific possibilities. As Carl Sagan said about Immanuel Velikovsky's theory about Venus being a comet (somehow spat out of Jupiter), it's not a bad thing that the theory was ridiculous, it was that people tried to suppress it without due consideration. At the end of the day, Immanuel Velikovsky is still wrong, but the response to his theories was not the proper way to do science.
Lokiare may be writing and referencing articles that are frighteningly innaccurate (such as Fox news), and then blowing those out of proportion based on shoddy science, but we should not and will not respond by banning or reporting him for doing exactly what the off-topic forums are about. Hopefully, one day, after we've pointed out the consistent failures in logic, he may realize that it's more likely his limited sources are at fault, rather than the rest of us. There is even the incredibly off-chance possibility that we will learn something from him too.
This is an incredibly naive and privileged position coming from someone (a straight, white male) with nothing to lose if certain ideas are allowed to proliferate. Most mainstream theorists have accepted since the mid-20th century that science cannot be apolitical, as Sagan implicitly is suggesting here, and in fact is a major actor in the creation of power discourses.
Not that it's an issue. Fire's already made it clear that some ideas are covered under the CoC's hate speech clause.
Unfortunately, endangering millions by spreading false fearmongering nonsense about vaccinations probably doesn't go under that clause, despite it demonstrating a hatred of humanity... Oh well.