Science Memes

11068 readers

2752 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

[email protected]

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

648

I definitely never unsubscribed from a YouTube channel just for that... (files.catbox.moe)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

99 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (8 children)

Descriptive linguists unite! Words evolve and that's okay. Really science should pivot away and start calling more proven theories a different word if they're upset about the confusion.

The etymology of the word theory comes from a word with a meaning closer to "to look at or speculate" so even in that sense science kind of hijacked a word that was further from the modern scientific understanding of the word "theory" and descriptively transformed it themselves for use in their community. And that's okay too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I accept it in colloquial discourse. I'm not happy about it, and I will smartass at everyone who isn't asking, but I accept that I'm probably fighting a losing battle. But in science, it's absolutely non-negotiable for words to mean what they mean, and not their own opposite.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Various fields have to adapt their terms all the time. For example, "idiot", "moron", and "mental retardation" were all official medical terms. Then they got used as an insult by the population at large, and got so bad that the medical field had to abandon them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Medical terms being used as an insult is a very specific (and problematic) case. And they also weren't turned into their own opposite. They were equalized with stupidity.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (5 replies)