.That's a well written and thought out response, and it is utter nonsense. Your belief that it is valid does not make it valid, regardless of how momentous an event it is.
A major part of my response was telling you
a) what I would do if I found an egregious engineering error in the NIST report, and
b) what I would do if I heard that some other engineer (or anyone) found a significant flaw in NIST's arguments.
This is NOT "belief". It is not "speculation".
.In this case you are simplifying a complex issue into what you believe people would do in a certain situation.
Once again, you are wrong. I am not speculating about what others would do under those circumstances. I am TELLING you what I would do.
And my extrapolation (what you disparagingly call "belief") is NOT "baseless speculation".
It is based on my 35 years interactions with other engineers.
In that time, I found out that engineers are curious, as patriotic as any other profession, diverse in their political persuasions, and, above all, LOVE finding mistakes in other engineers' work.
And especially because engineers are ornery contrarians, and NOBODY is gonna censor our commentary, especially not some pencil-neck bureaucrat, politician or lawyer.
Finally, MY job is easy. I've got to point out just a few engineers who will point out any existent flaws.
Your job is indefensible. You are suggesting that engineers who love justice & this country would remain silent.
Finally, as proof that the scientist & engineers will NOT stay silent, and that the gov't can NOT silence them:
The Global Warming debate.
The evolution debates (100s of them).
The evolution vs. creations debate.
The sociobiology debate.
Genetics debates.
Nuclear winter debates.
etc. etc. etc.
Sorry. Your proposition simply fails.
NOT from speculation. From experiment & experience.
.But it's nice to know you are another one who believes that an absence of voiced dissent means they consent.
I believe that an absence of voiced dissent means an absence of unvoiced dissent.
I believe that the existence of real, unvoiced dissent lead INEXORABLY to the existence of voiced dissent.
There is NO informed, voiced dissent.
There is amateur, incompetent, voiced dissent. This is NOT the same thing.
.This can discredit your critical thinking or that is your lack thereof.
The more of you who speak up like this the more people will see how very many of you here have skewed beliefs
A cornerstone of your contention is that there are thousands of engineers who know that the NIST report contains KNOWN gross errors or outright fraud.
The only "skewed belief" on display in that contention, Steve, is the snot-nosed, wet-behind-the-ears, acne enhanced, Young&Stupid but unshakable conviction that "WE (in this case, "truthers") are the only honest, honorable people on the planet".
Most folks grow out of this delusion long about the time the acne clears up.
.
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As respectfully as I can muster at the moment,
Tom