Dude contacts me because he's watched a YouTube clip and has picked up some folk pseudohistory about his home area. Shows me his family tree which has him descending from a fictional regional ruler. When I tell him I think that's just imagination, he asks me to explain why I "assume" so. "Hello professional research scholar, please deliver a detailed critique of the amateur theory I believe in." I just blocked him, can't be bothered, not my job.
@mrundkvist An engineer once emailed me a whole essay on how to cure HIV. To get him to understand how utterly wrong it was, I'd have had to give him the equivalent of an undergrad biology education. (I just deleted it and never replied.)
@sennoma An elderly relative once proudly sent me an essay where he tried to erect a culture-independent universal framework for deducing something about the past, maybe it was system of government or economy. He was horrified when I informed him that since his time at university in the 60s, the #Humanities had completely abandoned all hope of achieving culture-independent universal understanding of anything at all.
@mrundkvist There are still too many in the Sciences who cling to the idea of culture-independent understanding. "Pure" science, "pure" knowledge, no context, no muddying of the Pierian waters by human foibles. (Idiots. 😂 )
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