Yesterday I wrote about what I've called an Oedipus Trap: a situation where it would be so psychologically devastating to discover that you'd made a mistake--even completely innocently--that you will do everything in your power to avoid recognizing it. washingtonpost.com
One sign that you're caught in an Oedipus Trap: instead of defending your beliefs or actions, you lash out at anyone who asks even the gentlest questions. Because answering means addressing the possibility you're wrong, which is psychologically unbearable even to contemplate.
People who are confident they're correct may get bored explaining themselves--yet again!--to those who disagree. They may get irritated by interlocutors acting in bad faith. But they don't need to resort to how-dare-you-even-ask outrage.
This has become, for example, an incredibly unhealthy dynamic among supporters of vaccination, masks, etc. To be clear: I supported strenuous lockdowns, am relentlessly pro-vax, and maintain that masks help when used correctly.
I am sometimes annoyed at having to debate things I consider obvious. But I am prepared to debate them, and think debate is obviously a much more productive course of action than shouting "How dare you, sir! I say, how dare you!"
If you're on the side of science, you should not be resorting to crude "Kneel before Zod!" appeals to credentialism, which are about the least scientific things imaginable.
And even though I am broadly on the side of people doing this, I confess that when I see this, I wonder if they aren't hiding either a weakness in their argument, or the fact that they themselves have simply blindly deferred to some expert they identify with, and *can't* debate.
Which is, of course, totally fair: the world is far too complicated a place, and humanity's knowledge of it now too rich, for anyone to be prepared to debate everything. I have essentially taken any number of things, from plate tectonics to the existence of the Yanomono, on faith
But if you can't personally muster a good argument for something, including a nodding familiarity with the major data points, you have no business calling anyone else ignorant.
And you certainly have no business ordering them to stop asking questions.
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