The web is chock-full of various disinformation, including pseudoscientific disinformation that masquerades as scientific. Removing this disinformation may not be possible, but recognizing it is not too difficult.
What is pseudoscience?
Much written on the web is misinformation or disinformation (fake news) or simply misleading information in the sense that crucial facts have been deliberately or unknowingly overlooked.
There is also pseudoscientific information that masquerades as being scientific when it is not. In other words, a form of disinformation. The list of topics characterized as pseudoscience is long.
Pseudoscience describes any belief system or methodology which tries to gain legitimacy by wearing the trappings of science but fails to abide by the rigorous methodology and standards of evidence that are the marks of true science.
Credit: Rational Wiki – Pseudoscience
This variety of disinformation is usually easy to spot. The article How to Spot Pseudoscience by Brian Dunning provides a helpful 15-point checklist.
The case for not using the term pseudoscience
The article Stop Using the Word Pseudoscience by Katie Burke makes the case that the distinction between science and pseudoscience is unclear and that pseudoscience lacks a coherent meaning and leads to unnecessary polarization, mistrust, disrespectfulness, and confusion around science issues.
She explains that dismissing an idea or a belief as pseudoscience implies that people are ignorant or fakers for having such views and thus creates an adversarial environment.
She proposes that we should use more explicit descriptive terms when pointing out so-called pseudoscience.
Resources
- Article: How to Spot Pseudoscience by Brian Dunning
- Article: Stop Using the Word Pseudoscience by Katie L. Burke
Detailed Resources
- The Guardian: The collapse of the information ecosystem poses profound risks for humanity by Lydia Polgreen (2019)
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Tags: disinformation (16) | fake news (6) | global information ecosystem (10) | misinformation (13) | New Age (3) | pseudoscience (8) | science (18) | scientific method (17)
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