Olde Phoenix Inn

James Randi will not die. He will continue to shrink until he joins the Masters of the Universe the tardigrades.

Sadly I was wrong. We need more like him. Penn Gillette has taken part of the mantle. He doesn't do the busting.

The Skeptical community underwent a similar zipper split between Liberal and Conservative mind sets.

It crippled their ability to respond to the rampaging BS of the Trumpism movement.

jayphailey wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 28, 2024 8:34 am

The Skeptical community underwent a similar zipper split between Liberal and Conservative mind sets.

It crippled their ability to respond to the rampaging BS of the Trumpism movement.

Which is strange because skeptical is skeptical. You either examine the evidence, or you do not. If you do not, you are not skeptical.

Yeah, except you have humans doing it. So opinions and political preferences creep in.


For instance - you'll find people claiming to be skeptical complaining about "Woke" culture and even the LGBTQIA+ agenda, and the "transgnder Ideology"


The Self-Ownership point of view is clear, as well as the POV of putting empathy for human beings first.

But a "Conservative Skeptic" will treat the existence of trans people and their right to exist on their own terms as assertions that need to be proven, rigorously

As if Trans people are some sort of an imposition on straight people. They're not. They're an imposition on a worldview that holds straight as "Normal" and anything else as a deviation that must be justified.

It's BS, but people with rigid thinking can default that way.

That is just bigotry trying on skeptic robes. And it is not hard to see for what it is. Religious (Almost always religious) apologetics that fall apart the minute you put it to the question. Like my Dad, they change the subject. You have to hard press them to the point of squirming. They will turn inside out to avoid telling the truth of the matter, that they are just bigots.

It's folks who don't know any trans, gay, or lataino folks makin' all the noise. Folks they can emotionally turn into "The Other"