Who Do You Believe: A Scientist or a Celebrity?
My mom is currently in her 26th year of teaching and is an intelligent woman, simply put. Naturally, like many other teacher’s kids, I went through a phase when I was about 8 years old where I thought my mother knew everything about everything — and for a hot minute there it turned me into a know-it-all.
“My mom said…”
“Well, Mama told me…”
“That’s not right, my mom thinks…”
One day a friend of mine finally made the comment, “well if YOUR MOM says it, it has to be right,” in response to our third-grade minded opinions on which movie was better: Shrek or Shrek 2 (mom chose Shrek 1, the original is always best…duh).
After the smart-alec incident with my friend I toned it down on the “my mom is smarter than Albert Einstein” campaign and kept my mouth shut. In my defense, my mom knows a lot, and at the ripe age of 8 it seemed like she was the smartest woman in the world; like no question I had could stump her. However, as I got older, I realized my mom knew quite a bit about her specialty (English) and wasn’t near as skilled in her non-college-major courses such as high school chemistry or college algebra.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to disrespect my mother. She may not be the best at working through a quantum physics equation (who is?) but that woman has common sense — which is more than I can say for the 14,022 Instagram users who liked a post from VegNews this past week.
“WORLD LEADERS WON’T TALK ABOUT DIET CHANGE TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE. THIS NEW CELEB-BACKED DOCUMENTARY WILL.” the headline read.
“Celeb-backed documentary about science, because the Kardashians know more than the world’s leading scientists,” I thought as I rolled my eyes.
This is where my mom and her common sense come into play: how obtuse does one have to be to believe a celebrity over a scientific specialist? Have we, as a society, fallen down the “cows are bad, deforestation for soy production is good” rabbit hole so far that we believe a celebrity over highly trained scientists?
Common sense people, common sense.
Here’s another point: there’s a reason won’t talk about “diet change to fight climate change” and that’s because it’s utterly ridiculous.
Don’t you think if world leaders could, in fact, blame climate issues on someone they would? This is an issue which gets brought up in every political race and has for as long as I can remember. It’s an issue that’s talked about in science textbooks. It’s so much of an issue, that even if you believe global warming is a hoax, you can still admit that CLEARLY it’s an issue to a large portion of the population seeing as it’s brought up so frequently.
Logically speaking, if government officials or scientists had someone or something to point the finger at and say “this is who’s responsible for the Climate Crisis,” they would — it doesn’t even take an 8-year-old to realize that.
The last point I’d like to make is something I know I say far too often, but evidently, I still haven’t preached it enough: don’t believe untrustworthy sources.
If there’s one thing I took away from my journalism classes in college, it’s that your sources can either make or break your story.
Sure, Kate Winslet (the celebrity VegNews boasts as a supporter and narrator or the “Celeb-Backed Documentary”) may know everything under the sun about acting — she knows more than me, I can tell you that. But what formal training does Kate Winslet have regarding climate studies?
Truly, people, finding a solid source on a topic is not that hard. Good sources are unbiased (meaning they have no opinion, they only share hard facts), they are timely (meaning they were published within the past 7 years), and they have established credibility (meaning they have a track record of sharing accurate information).
If you’re referencing a person, look for someone who is an expert on a topic and has adequate training to be an expert (such as someone who studied a topic or works in said topic’s field).
When looking for a print or online source such as an article, always check to be sure it’s an actual news outlet you’re referencing and not a blog or someone’s opinion. Heck, don’t even take my column/blog as a solid source — be sure to site the sources I USE when making points and sharing facts, don’t just take my word for it.
Lastly, when sharing information or statistics found on the internet, double check to make sure the figures you’re sharing come from a trusted, unbiased study. Of course a study funded by the Animal Ag Sucks Association is going to paint animal agriculture in a bad light, look for studies which are backed by government funded organizations or credible universities/individuals.
Don’t be like 8-year-old me and trust someone just because you look up to them. Although my mom knows many, many things about literature and grammar, she really doesn’t know a whole lot about climate issues — and neither do these celebrities who order one vegan meal on their private jet which was paid for with the check they received for backing a vegan propaganda film.
Use common sense; double check your sources; and don’t just take an untrained, unprofessional, average consumer’s word as seriously as you would a scientist.
