And this is why real scientists are always at a rhetorical disadvantage- especially in the world of bloviating self-proclaimed experts on cable “news.” For real scientists, certainty does NOT EXIST. But Muggles don’t understand that. 1/ https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1246771329212260359

To be a scientist means never removing ones self from doubt. It means always assume there are things we don’t know. And may never know. 2/

I refer to this as the rhetorical disadvantage of science: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.2017.1406583

But to communicate science publicly, especially in a world that privileges the trappings of expertise (confidence, certainty), but not expertise itself, means scientists may need to temporarily drop their epistemological orientation to the world ...

...and actually put themselves back in the story.

Getting meta by referring to themselves is POWERFUL (and scientists hate doing this):

“In my x years, I have never seen this.”

“Based on what I know, I am telling my loved ones to ..”

“I am kept up at night thinking of ...”

This is why the first hand accounts of doctors overwhelmed by the situation is so powerful. They are experts in medical care and they are speaking as human beings who are overwhelmed and unable to do what they are trained to do.

Muggles understand that.

When scientists “drop the mask of detached objectivity” and show an authentic emotional /affective response... just out of sheer frustration or sadness or shock... muggles understand that.

Note this is also why Trump’s “WHAT DO WE HAVE TO LOSE???” in reference to trying anti-viral malaria drugs was so much more rhetorically powerful than Fauci’s “No. that has yet to be tested in a controlled setting for treatment of covid. Side effects possible blah blah”

Because Trump is a Muggle.
And the Muggles speak Muggle.