Lessons for medtwitter from the election

1 lots of people think differently
2 censoring or silencing or retracting opponents is unlikely to be a durable win
3 shouting louder that people ought to do something may be ineffective
4 it's ok to say that policy has uncertainty...

5 Read the comments on medpage and medscape vs medtwitter and consider that doctors have a range of political opinions
6 work on persuasion rather than getting people to agree by force...
This means..

6a. Less mobtwitter
6b Never call someone's boss
6c patiently explain why instead of implying that folks who do not see the logic of it are ignorant or worse
6d Rome was not built in a day, so some arguments can be let go

7 Don't make yourself look like a hypocrite: If you would not tweet an ecological study that is clearly flawed if it disagrees with you, don't tweet it just because it agrees with you.

8. Please don't tweet models that prove your point because all the inputs were cherry picked to prove the point

9. If someone doesn't do what you think is best for everyone's health or their own, consider that getting angry might not be the most effective way of persuading them or others.

10. Don't demonize people

11 Engage with folks with alternate policy ideas.

12. Don't create dueling memos and turn policy into a popularity contest (among the slice of med Twitter)

13. Don't say: Follow the science... if your recommendation is science + values. Science alone can never proscribe policy. It requires values and preferences, which are outside science

14. Enough credentialism. Your opponents are not wrong because of the degrees they have or do not have. You must explain why they are wrong

15. Follow 25 people who disagree with you and don't mute them or unfollow, but silently take it in to remind yourself that the world is complicated

16. Folks who agree with you are not good guys and folks who disagree are are not bad guys. We are all messy and complicated.

17. Don't find people in your tribe and accuse them of not being pure enough.

18. Get off this website sometimes

19. If someone has a minority view in medicine asking them why they are not publishing peer reviewed papers is like sitting on their chest and asking them why they are not standing up.

20. Don't confuse a tweet that gives you validation for one that advances your cause