Interesting discussion. “A pandemic of narcissism” is the correct term for the mass movement of these deluded cranks.
It is the same when unqualified celebrities give unsolicited medical advice. It is almost always bogus and unscientific, like Reiki or TCM. They take center stage and the illness being discussed becomes the sideline story.
I think their mindset is very similar to that of religious fundamentalists which are constructed upon years of confirmation bias and group polarization. No counter arguments will get a fair hearing because they already have their minds made up.
I know a Professor of ENT who told me that patients, especially in the last few years, tell him outright that he is wrong, that they know better or that they got different opinions from FB friends. He now asks them “So what are you doing in my surgery then”?
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”
Charles Darwin wrote in The Descent of Man.
The Dunning Kruger effect
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