I’m trying to work this out. Is “epistemological privilege“ intended as a pejorative characterization of the idea that a doctor can know more about the health of his patient than some rando on the internet? Or what?
I did not say Fetterman's doctor did not know more about Fetterman than I do. If you think I made that claim, show your receipts.
Epistemological privilege is a term I've used (I came up with it independently, I believe, but I might have heard it somewhere) to describe the behaviour where people attempt to shut down somebody's assertions through mere statement of their own superior position in attaining knowledge. An example:
* You are a man trying to explain to a woman what mansplaining is *
This is a claim of epistemological privilege, that no man has the right to make any kind of assertion about the meaning of the word 'mansplain', and therefore no arguments need to be addressed or even considered. As if the
meanings of words is not a matter of reason or evidence.
Claims to epistemological privilege is rampant amongst progressives, in my experience.