Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some thoughts for your consideration, delivered with collaborative intent: > I have a bunch of coworkers that think scientists are making up this data and skewing results because their jobs depend on it and they want to continue to get funding. FWIW, I also happen to harbor this suspicion. How might one actually know whether there is an element of truth to it? > "Follow the money" is a common thing they say in regard…
> FWIW, I also happen to harbor this suspicion. How might one actually know whether there is an element of truth to it? It's probably good to have some baseline level of cynicism, since individual people do often act in egotistical ways. However, what you're proposing seems to imply that either (1) there is a vast conspiracy of climate scientists, who are engaging in that conspiracy for ultimately very little gain or…
It may seem this way to you, but you have formed an incorrect conclusion (a behavior which I argue is the very core of the problem). Please see my other comments in this thread for clarification.
> There's nothing scientists love more than attacking each other's interpretations of data, to prove that they're smarter than the next guy.
Agreed, but this does not logically preclude my concerns that it is possible that this competitive behavior takes place within an overall "overton window" of acceptable discourse and study. To be clear, I am not asserting that this is in fact what is happening, but I am very much asserting that if you are saying something along the lines of "this is not happening, at all, and I know it", then my reaction is suspicion due to an obvious lack of epistemic humility.
I am also not recommending my beliefs to others, I am simply trying to provide some insight into how I think, and that the underlying reasons for my non-compliance are other than those you and others presume. What I will recommend though, is to observe how willing yourself and others are to even consider the possibility that us "deniers" (yet another comically simplistic belief) are not actually motivated by sheer stupidity. Disagreement with the proposal isn't even attempted, but rather the response will almost always be silence.
I proclaim that something very interesting is going here.