This is a familiar refrain amongst climate-change denialists, of course. The meme has now mutated and spread to cybersecurity policy:
:smack: :smack: :eek:
In closing, the fact that mathematicians haven’t been able to determine the final digit to pi, is just because they are lazy.
Incidentally, how are the feds planning to actually work this. While I could see them leaning on some standard software producers to put in back doors, unbreakable encryption isn’t that hard to program. I would assume that any terrorist worth his salt would simply eschew the commercial encrypted and pick one up off some pro internet freedom message board programmed by some geek in Singapore.
The particularly weird thing is that politicians and public officials use the fact that they are not scientists to justify not accepting the professional assessments of scientists. Also, celebrities and Popes shouldn’t make public statements that agree with the assessments of scientists because they are not scientists themselves, while politicians can make public policy directly opposed to scientific judgment even though they have no expertise.
And politicians want to pass a law preventing a government science organization, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), from allowing other scientists to advise the EPA. Kinda like the successful approach the NRA took stopping the CDC from doing any research on gun violence.
You’d think more people would appreciate living in a modern society where you don’t have to know everything or scrape out a living as a yeoman farmer, but apparently not.
I for one feel bad for the FBI and that they don’t have access to every little bit of data in our technological lives. 
(emphasis added)
Particularly ironic in this case, given that Pope Francis was educated as a chemical engineer before taking up the priesthood – not an “expert”, exactly, but enough to put him well ahead of 99+% of politicians in his understanding of the science involved.
A whole lot of good people have said it’s too hard to protect the nation from teh terraists without such access.
But my reaction to that is: I’m not sure they’ve really tried.
Much like the way I immediately append “… I am a pile of shit” to the sentence fragment “I’m not a racist, but”, I believe the phrase “so I should probably shut the fuck up about science” is the automatic follow-up to “I’m no scientist…”. Any different follow-up can safely be ignored as a semantic aberration.
Pretty much covers it. If anything, it’s gotten worse in the ~35 since he said that.
This is such an annoying attitude I get not just from the political class but in general from “Management Leadership” types. They’ve been hearing so much Management Leadership babble that they think every objection can be addressed by ordering people to think of moving the cheese outside the box or something to that effect, and that the technical experts are just being rigidly dogmatic or lazy in their comfort zone or don’t see the right balance between being process vs. results oriented or don’t look at the big picture or care more about their precious arcane ways than about delivering the product. There is never “no, that’s a bad idea” in their lexicon.
Then they get angry at the technical expert advisors when something goes kablooey and ask “how did you not foresee this?” and the experts facepalm.
But of course, celebrities are profound experts, well-qualified to pontificate on the mortal dangers of vaccinations.
The only logically permissible use of the phrase “I’m not a scientist…” is in conjunction with “therefore, I am not qualified to have an opinion on this topic”.
Not actually trying to show that the sentiment has already been expressed (who am I to attempt to limit anything said in-thread?)
Considering recent history, this statement is absolutely cool and I, for one, appreciate it.
How about, “I’m not a scientist so I’m going to accept the opinion of scientists over my own prejudices in their areas of expertise.”
Ignorance is a powerful confidence booster.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
[Announcer at the fair]
We have a WINAAAAA!!!
[/AATF]
Of course the losers out there will not look at that solution, they have a lot of mouth breathers to pander to continue to get elected.