Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
How Legal Risk-Avoidance Makes Experts Look Stupid
Today it was supposed to snow. As I write this, we are several hours into “It should have started snowing already” based on Accuweather, the National Weather Service, and all the other “experts.” Forget climate predictions: we are talking about predicting a few hours into the future. It was 2-4″, now 1-2″ and though it is 40 degrees outside my office, they tell me we will still “surely” get an inch of snow.
Stuff and nonsense, of course. And we all know it. Just as with Covid modeling (“WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!”), the best tools in the world are no good if you cover your legal posterior by always publicizing the worst case scenarios “just in case.”
Our legal system, risk-avoidance idiocy and media desperation for the attention of the public has made it impossible to believe any doom-and-gloom scenario that is being offered. Which magically turns so-called experts into boys who cry wolf. We know how that story ended.
Published in General
Looks like you’ve had a little too much to think. Be afraid!
Followup. All precipitation has now ended (my gauge shows 0.52″, so a decent rainfall). It is 36 degrees outside. That is the end of that snowstorm.
Remember: If your local newscasters gin up the Storm Porn, their ratings will go up.
I still follow local Oregon news. In the same day they had a report that COVID was winding down thanks to to Omicron, and then another article warning that according to scientific models, deaths would be way up this year thanks to Omicron. The latter of course completely ignores that it was the supposedly accurate and terrible dire predictive model from the Imperial College that got us into this mess in the first place.
Murder hornets!
Since Covid, each time I see a reference to an “expert,” an image of Dr. Anthony Fauci pops into my mind, and I discount that reference. Experts too frequently become enamored of their status as experts, and step outside their area of knowledge to become broad policy advisors.
My favorite covid-era meme:
Not really much as rain. 1″ of rain is approx 1′ of snow