You chase away “fake experts” and other “rotten arguments”. Who are you Thomas Durand?
Thomas Durand. I have been running La Tronche en bias for ten years and I am one of the co-founders of Astec, the association for science and the transmission of critical thinking. The ambition is for people to ask themselves more questions about why they think what they think.
You come to Ruelle at the invitation of the Maison de Santé de Val de Touvre. You will help us to discern “information from misinformation” on this subject…
Yes. The fact remains that I am not a health professional. My job is to help people evaluate the epistemic quality (relative to knowledge, editor’s note) of statements. In health, as in all areas, people will be more autonomous in their ability to make informed choices if they are able to correctly assess whether the information they encounter is credible or not. Sometimes it’s undecidable. But then, we can still have an opinion. To avoid trusting your instinct which is sometimes a very good judge and sometimes not. We see lots of people who are wrong and who are sure of themselves.
Does health still remain one of your favorite subjects?
Health is a recurring subject because it is the one on which there are the most beliefs. And where people allow themselves to believe things more. People rarely take their car or computer to a shaman when they have a problem. On the other hand, as soon as we have hip pain, or any other problem, we allow ourselves to believe stories because in fact, many charlatans provide some form of solution. The real danger in homeopathy is not the granule, it is the belief. Because when you believe in homeopathy, you distance yourself from real science. The more we believe in alternative medicine, the more we die when we have serious illnesses, because we treat them later.
“We see lots of people who are wrong and who are sure of themselves. »
How do you explain the rise of esoteric beliefs?
I don’t know if there’s a surge, let’s just say we’re spotting them better than before. And covid has also changed things with a polarization of opinions with people who have been very angry around covid, with decisions that seemed abusive, liberticidal to them. So we have a whole ecosystem of esoteric practices which is stronger than before. I don’t know if there are more people who believe it.
Yes because we are talking about beliefs?
Yes, and what does “believe” mean. It’s a complicated word. There are people who believe in homeopathy, that does not mean that they will use it systematically. It is difficult to assess the level of people’s support for these alternative medicines.
And then there are real dangers sometimes?
Yes, when there is mental control. When traditional medicine does not respond to your problem, and you fall into medical wandering, and in front of you, you have people who bullshit you but speak kindly to you, then they can do good with their word. And thus acquire power over those who follow them, over their subscribers. But they are not trained to be responsible for what they do. There is advice that can be dramatic.
Conference at 7:30 p.m. at the Jean-Ferrat theater in Ruelle, health workshops from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Open to all.
