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Comment by jessaustin | Hacker News Reader

Does a cartoonist have a duty to contribute constructively to a scientific discussion? If so, does he also have a duty to contribute in any particular way to a discussion that may once have been scientific but has long since been completely politicized?

If I'm blessed with a long life, a special joy of old age will be the various attempts to explain how Scott Adams and a bunch of conservative blowhards got it right while entire university departments got it wrong...

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Anyone can try to be a gadfly to the consensus side of science, science is open to anyone. But, if you choose to throw your hat into that ring then you open yourself to criticism of your methods and behavior. You don't get to shout 'free speech' and walk away.

why would you listen to him on climate change? what are his credentials? doesn't the fact that you listen to him over people with more experience and knowledge in the field indicate that you are looking for people who support for a viewpoint, and not for people who are knowledgable?

also, scott adams guaranteed herman cain would be the presidential nominee in 2012. he is a bullshit artist who makes a million claims then picks out the ones that turned out to be right later. why even listen to him at all?

It has been years since I read anything by Adams, or indeed since I've looked at a Dilbert cartoon. "The Truth" isn't really that important to me. I'm not in a position such that it actually matters what I think of global warming, but I'm happy that most people who are in such a position seem mostly to agree with me. That is, we haven't yet made many human lives much worse in an attempt to curb emissions of CO₂. That would be monstrous and inhumane. Of course I have no problem with benign and even beneficial actions like encouraging solar energy production.

> Does a cartoonist have a duty to contribute constructively to a scientific discussion?

No, but neither does he have the right to not be called out when he contributes destructively to a scientific discussion.

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