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courtiers-reply.md

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+---
+id:
+aliases: []
+title: Courtier's Reply
+tags:
+  - authorship/original
+  - destiny/permanent
+  - status/incomplete
+  - type/encyclopedia-entry
+---
+# Courtier's Reply
+
+A [courtier's reply](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtier%27s_reply)
+is a dismissal of an argument
+on the grounds that the arguer lacks the authority
+(knowledge, credentials, training, etc.)
+to offer any criticism at all.
+
+The term was coined by Paul Zachary Myers as user pharyngula
+in reference to _The Emperor's New Clothes_
+in the eponymous article ["The Courtier's Reply"](https://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/12/24/the-courtiers-reply)
+
+***
+
+If, observing a bridge actively collapsing under the cars above it,
+you suggest that some error may have been made
+by the structural engineers responsible for designing or maintaining it,
+and your peer replies,
+"Keep your speculation to yourself,
+you don't know the first thing about their discipline,"
+and in that they are correct,
+they have given a courtier's reply.