Patrick Moreau (The duty, on June 13) rightly highlights how activists now use the language of experts to promote their beliefs. By being told during the months of the pandemic to “listen to science”, these activists who believe their cause is more important than the search for truth understood that by transporting their speech in a pseudoscientific style, they could convince . And the thing works. Political, religious or moral conviction is now coated in this dialect of averages, standard deviations, margins of uncertainty, etc.
The most striking example of the success of this ploy is still the 2023 study by which the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction attempted to convince us of its moral position that we should completely ban alcohol, or consume it in homeopathic doses. The most experienced statisticians have all seen the deception. Unfortunately, the self-censorship of these real experts, who fear personal attacks, leaves the field open to these activists. Experts only talk to experts.
However, if we really listen to science, we will hear it say that it always doubts, that it is never certain of its latest assertion, that it is looking for someone who can contradict it, to make it even more strong. As they said in my youth: “the wise doubts, the idiot is sure of himself”.
To watch on video