This can easily be generalised as advice for having honest debates about pretty much anything – for holding yourself accountable and those you are arguing with. It presents five sanity checks to assess whether someone is making an argument in good faith and in a serious attempt at finding truth. The first two will get you quite far: 1. Are they (or you!) accurately representing the current scientific consensus they seek to overturn (or: whatever position they argue against)? 2. Are they reckoning with the full suite of evidence, rather than a cherry‑picked subset?

From Weekly Filet #567, in March 2026.