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<blockquote data-quote="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost" data-source="post: 5135956" data-attributes="member: 4720">At least here in the States, there's a very strong anti-expert bias.&nbsp; The general opinion seems to be that scientists are bad people because they think they're smarter than you or that their opinions matter more.We have a cultural sickness that insists all opinions are equal.&nbsp; Training is irrelevant.&nbsp; Experience is irrelevant.&nbsp; Unless it's your training and experience.&nbsp; That, of course, remains paramount and anyone questioning it is ignorant or worse.EDIT:On the volcano base thing....I am a scientist.&nbsp; I have spent 10 years explaining to my family that science doesn't make money, especially in university.&nbsp; They cannot wrap their brains around this.&nbsp; At all.&nbsp; I have family members who hear me start talking about my work, and you can tell they really are picturing one of Blofeld's caldera headquarters, complete with death rays.&nbsp; And these are middle class people with high school educations and some college.Media-based impressions of scientists are stronger than their memories of growing up with me in their family.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost, post: 5135956, member: 4720"] At least here in the States, there's a very strong anti-expert bias. The general opinion seems to be that scientists are bad people because they think they're smarter than you or that their opinions matter more. We have a cultural sickness that insists all opinions are equal. Training is irrelevant. Experience is irrelevant. Unless it's [i]your[/i] training and experience. That, of course, remains paramount and anyone questioning it is ignorant or worse. EDIT: On the volcano base thing.... I am a scientist. I have spent 10 years explaining to my family that science doesn't make money, especially in university. They cannot wrap their brains around this. At all. I have family members who hear me start talking about my work, and you can tell they really are picturing one of Blofeld's caldera headquarters, complete with death rays. And these are middle class people with high school educations and some college. Media-based impressions of scientists are stronger than their memories of growing up with me in their family. [/QUOTE]

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