Comment by estearum

True of academic research which has built systems and conventions specifically to achieve this, but very very little of what we know — even the most deeply academic among us — originates from “research” in the formal sense at all.

The comment thread above is not about how people should verify scientific claims of fact that are discussed in scientific formats. The comment is about a more general epistemic breakdown, 99.9999999% of which is not and cannot practically be “gotten to the bottom of” by pointing to some “original research.”