Any subjects irritate you? Creationist dogma when trying to learn more about evolution/physics? Voodoo economics/fabricated history in the political arena? Broscience in the bodybuilding realm?
There are a lot of complex subjects out there, and sometimes it’s hard to sift through all the BS out there in order to actually arrive at something resembling truth. Whether it’s due to public misinformation campaigns, heavy anti-funding, general misconceptions/rumors, poor teaching, lack of good information, inherently complex subject matter, or a conflation of correlation/causation, some subjects are just hard to learn about because they require so much education/research, and much of it is simply aimed at getting good sources!
Which subject infuriates you when it comes to correcting ignorance and why?
I think the two most obfuscated in online sources are climate science and economics.
It doesn’t take much looking to find very solid sources for biology, physics, and the “harder” sciences.
There’s a lot of dodgy social science out there too - mainly from pop-sci writers that take reasonably solid studies way beyond their bounds (Malcolm Gladwell, the Freakonomics folks, and their ilk). But that’s mostly harmless stuff, IMO.
Neuroscience is pretty bad. I’d love to read a good layman’s introduction to current advances in brain study, but all the popular neuroscience books seem to be self-help woo with titles like: Think Like a Marmoset: What Brain Science Tells Us About Eating Cake, Smoking Weed, and Having Mind-Blowing Orgasms.
I’m voting for economics. Climate science is much more clearly divided into crazy-stupid-greedy wishful thinking and science, while economics is full of counter-intuitive “truths”. Frankly I do not understand the basis of economics at all, and it isn’t just because I am bad with numbers.
Nutrition has the wishful thinking element but is also clouded by what I call the blubber argument: people can live pretty well on whale blubber and the contents of the stomachs of marine mammals, so what do we actually know about nutrition for certain?
I’m not sure if it meets your definition of layman, but wouldn’t a good review article in something like Trends in Neurosciences be what you’re looking for? Or are you looking for the brain science equivalent of A Brief History of Time?.
My local government, there has been an ongoing shit storm for years between our local zoning board, the school system and elected officials. Both sides calling everyone else liars. That everyone is acting like children is clear, all the facts however, are in complete dispute.
I envy you guys out there that don’t live in a small town and have more choices for political discourse available than snarky editorials sandwiched between hunting license information and the schedules for Lutheran ice cream socials.
Economics. Keynesian economic theory is misunderstood by almost everyone. In an information age where information can be copied ad infinitum we still treat it in theory as if it were a commodity where only one person can own it.
Nutrition and to some extent the medical science. Medicine is probably the worst science for holding onto past theories well past the time they should be re-examined. Plus the attitude that they are correct and ignore any emprical evidence to the contrary.
Medical information is one good answer, and pharmaceutical company influence is only one of several reasons. See the Atlantic article “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science.”