I try to be tolerant of people's foibles, but one thing that annoys the absolute hell out of me is when someone is obviously ignorant of the basic facts of a subject, and yet expects everyone to treat their opinion about it as if it had merit.
It's why "the Big Bang means nothing exploded and made everything" (cosmology) and "why are there still monkeys?" (evolutionary biology) both make me see red almost instantaneously. Fer cryin' in the sink, if you're going to talk about something, at least take the five minutes it requires to read the fucking Wikipedia page on the topic first. Yes, I suppose you're "entitled to your opinion" regardless, but I'm in no way required to treat such idiocy as if it were Stephen Hawking levels of brilliance.
I mean, I have a lot of faults, but one thing I try to avoid is pontificating on subjects about which I am ignorant. I have a pretty good idea of the limits of my own knowledge, and I am unhesitating in saying, "Sorry, I don't know enough to comment about that."
It's really not that hard to say. Try it, you'll see.
What brings this whole infuriating subject up is all the people who weighed in on something that is honestly a very cool piece of research, which came out in the journal Geophysical Research Letters last week. A team led by geophysicist Charlotte Gaugné-Gouranton, of Paris City University, used satellite data to analyze a peculiar shift in the Earth's gravitational field that affected a huge region of the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
The team is uncertain what caused the anomaly, which lasted for about two years and then subsided back into its original state. "By analyzing time series of GRACE [Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment]-derived gravity gradients, we have identified an anomalous large-scale gravity gradient signal in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, maximum at the beginning of 2007, which cannot be fully explained by surface water sources nor core fluid flows," the researchers wrote. "This leads us to suggest that at least part of this signal could reflect rapid mass redistributions deep in the mantle."
The team suspects it might have been caused by a sudden phase transition in a common mantle mineral called bridgmanite (Mg,Fe(SiO3)), which could cause mass redistribution because of changes in density, similar to what happens when water freezes into ice. But further research is needed to confirm this explanation.
Well, in a classic case of people adding 1 + 1 and getting 73.8, we immediately had dozens of self-styled experts adding "anomaly" to "gravity" and multiplying by "cannot be fully explained" and getting... well, take a look for yourself:
- "Advanced technology of alien manufacture is capable of 'shielding' from gravity and is the means of FTL propulsion that's been observed over and over. This 'blink' means it's finally been captured by scientific equipment. Countdown until the government denials start."
- "Disruptions like this are to be expected during the End Times. Hell is on the move."
- "The scientists know more than they're letting on. I wouldn't live along the East Coast of the United States if you paid me. Connections to La Palma?" [Nota bene: La Palma is one of the Canary Islands, home to a volcano that has been erupting intermittently since 2021, and was the subject of a rather hysterical BBC documentary in 2000 about how the island could split in half and cause a megatsunami -- something geologists have determined is extremely unlikely]
- "When those windows open and close again, it is a sign of the Celestial Ascension. We should expect more of the same very soon."
- "I'm surprised they let this study get published. Something that can change the Universal Law of Gravity, and they're shrugging it off as an 'anomaly'? But now that the secret is out, why hasn't this been headline news worldwide?"
- "The LHC [Large Hadron Collider] went online in 2008. Not a coincidence. It's only a theory, but they said that the LHC could create mini black holes, and this may be proof."
- "Movement within the Hollow Earth. But movement of what? Stay tuned, folks, this is big."
*brief pause to stop banging my head against my desk while whimpering softly*
Okay, let's all just hang on a moment. First of all, this anomaly was vast in size, but tiny in magnitude. The fluctuation was small enough that it was undetectable on the Earth's surface (the scientists' own words) and was only caught by highly sensitive sensors on satellites that had been specifically designed to detect minute shifts in the Earth's gravitational field. Second, it wasn't a "blink" -- it lasted for over two years. Third, it peaked back in 2007, so whatever it was ended seventeen years ago, and in that time we have seen no Atlantic megatsunamis, aliens, Celestial Ascensions, or hellmouths opening. Fourth, a shift in the gravitational field just means "something with mass moved," not a "change in the Universal Law of Gravitation." Fifth, if the LHC had created a dangerous mini black hole, you'd think the physicists right there in Switzerland would have been the first to know, not some geologists working out in the Atlantic. Sixth, you can't give an idea legitimacy simply by adding the phrase "it's only a theory;" if a claim was stupid before, it's still stupid after you say that. In fact, it might be even stupider.
Seventh, and most importantly: for fuck's sake, people.
It's not that we laypeople -- and I very much include myself in that term -- can't get carried away by the hype sometimes. In fact, when I first read about the La Palma thing a few years ago, I was honestly kind of freaked out by it; devastating landslide-induced megatsunamis have happened before (in fact, long-term followers of Skeptophilia might recall that I've written about two of them here -- the Storegga Slide and the Agadir Canyon Avalanche). But then I did what everyone should do when they're confronted with a claim outside of their area of expertise; I did a little digging to find out what the scientists themselves had to say on the topic, and I found out that just about all geologists agree that while La Palma is clearly seismically active, it's unlikely to fracture and create an ocean-wide megatsunami.
At that point, I just kind of went, "whew," and resumed business as usual. I did not then go on to claim that the scientists were wrong, the island was too going to fracture, and aliens from the Hollow Earth were going to use their anti-gravity faster-than-light propulsion to come out and usher in either the End Times or the Celestial Ascension, depending on which version you went for earlier.
Look, it's not that there's anything specifically dangerous about thinking there's an alien base under the eastern Atlantic. It's more that such fuzzy irrationality very quickly becomes a habit. Once you're accustomed to demanding respect for a claim that upon examination turns out to be "this crazy, fact-free idea I just now pulled out of my ass," you begin to apply the same demand for your uninformed opinions on medicine, the economy, and politics.
Which in one sentence explains why the United States is currently a slow-motion train wreck.
It all goes back to what Isaac Asimov said in 1980, doesn't it? Seems like a good place to end:
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
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