Post #2862247
2025-10-13 19:03 UTC
@oof@mastodon.sdf.org @richpuchalsky@mastodon.social how do you determine that they are faulty? You check their sources. You check the sources of those. It all looks legit. Do you go for a fourth layer of sources? A fifth? When do you stop? When the original slop article is buried 5 layers or more in, it becomes impossible to fact check.
Replies (2)
-
@helianthropy@tech.lgbt 2025-10-14 18:56
@DerPumu@mstdn.games @oof@mastodon.sdf.org @richpuchalsky@mastodon.social Plus the sheer volume of content that can be generated in a short amount of time. How do people keep up?
-
@oof@mastodon.sdf.org 2025-10-14 19:18
@DerPumu@mstdn.games @richpuchalsky@mastodon.social A scholar checks sources recursively when seeking the reason for some inconsistency or contradiction. First test the conclusion; if it is false or imperfect, only then test the most likely sources of error. Rooting out entrenched errors may require a serious amount of labor. (William Gilbert needed decades.) Some medical misunderstandings can take lifetimes to resolve. But scholars are in this sense never working alone.