/lit/ - Literature

Pop science like A Brief History of Time is totally fine and a great benefit to help laymen understand scientific concepts.
However-
HOWEVER
Oftentimes in "pop-sci" the authors like to sneak in normative ideological claims or interpretations in between the facts, and the vast majority of laymen cannot identify the difference between an opinion and a fact. Begging the question is ridiculously common in pop-sci and it's seriously idealogically dangerous

Tl;dr pop-sci isn't bad in and of itself, but it's very commonly used to maliciously manipulate people who don't know better

>>12058109
I see. It's like seeing metaphors where there is just plain descriptions. Like interpreting a book as an allegorical representation of some historical event—maybe an event occurred centuries after the book was written. Like seeing references to pop culture everywhere, or missing references to pop culture because pop culture is so ephemereal. I understand.