What Makes Someone a Marine Scientist?

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

In online forums (and even simply texts among friends and family..) it's tough to differentiate legitimate questions and good natured humor at times...
I took the OP as a reasonable question which is open to plenty of different definitions, some serious and some less serious but given it's not a regulated industry like "doctor" or "engineer" there's a lot more room for personal opinion. Heck, even in a regulated industry a title like "captain" is all too often used far more broadly than a person with adequate maritime credentials required by USCG to take passengers for hire..
What probably struck a nerve with some is how marginalized the entire scientific community often is? There's a bunch of really dedicated people (both paid and unpaid, with and without degrees) that are trying extremely hard to figure out answers to some pretty big questions, like what to do about climate change, and marine scientists have their hands full as is without debating whether or not the earth is flat or dealing with the vast majority of politicians and people in general refusing to do anything meaningful to help the situation, not to mention the ignorant resistance and short-sightedness of many to even the most trivial of proposed small changes...

 

[MichaelMc]

The trend of fighting against knowledge is very worrisome.

We base our democracy (those of us in the U.S.) on free choices by an informed electorate. Fighting to make the electorate less informed is worrisome. It does have a long history, but that is not a reason to continue, accelerate or celebrate it.
<rant off>

(And yes, trained as a scientist, with an advanced degree, I'm sensitive to it. It is against everything I was trained in.)

 

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

The trend of fighting against knowledge is very worrisome.

We base our democracy (those of us in the U.S.) on free choices by an informed electorate. Fighting to make the electorate less informed is worrisome. It does have a long history, but that is not a reason to continue, accelerate, or celebrate it.
<rant off>

(And yes, trained as a scientist, with an advanced degree, I'm sensitive to it. It is against everything I was trained in.)

I miss the USA ideals of a democratic republic controlled by free choices by an informed electorate and three independent branches of government (which is what I grew up believing in).
Among other things the Citizens United decision, public corruption, underfunded schools, and only ever getting to vote for the lesser of two evils has taken a heavy toll on our country...

 

[MichaelMc]

Some moves toward ranked choice voting look promising at making polarization a less effective strategy to win. We will see.

But yes, we don't seem to be living up to our nation's ideals.

 

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

Some moves toward ranked choice voting look promising at making polarization a less effective strategy to win. We will see.

But yes, we don't seem to be living up to our nation's ideals.

Ranked choice voting would help, but only with educated electorate that respects individual rights/free speech/etc. What ever country really needs is a scientist as a leader, or at least a leader that actively listens to experts on important issues...

 

[Doc]

Because of my true background and vocation, when i hand out ‘business cards’ to people i meet casually, i claim the occupation and title of Cryptozoologist.

It diverts a lot of questions. A fellow associate just says that he’s in Insurance Sales. Immediate conversation stopper.

Doctor Jesse, Doctor Jill, and me.

 

[WeRtheOcean]

Popular yes. Accurate no.

That's the Humpty-Dumpty world we live in now. "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean." Pretty soon we'll be seeing book-burning bonfires of dictionaries, because dictionaries perpetuate the oppression of forcing words to have only one or a few specific meanings.