Bill Beaty on the bigotry and hatred of pseudoskeptics

[Scepcop]

[brett]

yey bill !! - lot of good stuff on his site - - oops i must have my WOO head on again - better go and flagellate myself with a copy of the skeptical inquirer or some such - just to get my head back in "order "

[NinjaPuppy]

I'm lovin' that article. Very well put.

[Jayhawker30]

Psuedoskeptics... more like psuedoSEPTICS.

Also, Jet? I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're going on about.

[Craig Browning]

Believers can be huge bigots as well! Insanely so!

Extremists exists on all fronts and around all messages; if you are on the outside fringe on any given issue chances are you're a protagonist with a big chip on his/her shoulder.

One of the things about this particular forum that I've always appreciated is that a sense of balance exists. Sure, we have our cynical wise-guys and yet, I've found that the 3 key skeptics on this forum are willing to listen and even consider things vs. slamming the door on things off the cuff. . . other than certain Youtube cult thinking perhaps The other thing that Billy is not taking into consideration when it comes to the JREF and CSICOP fools is that most of the membership is composed of FAILED magic buffs; lethargic dreamers who don't have what it takes to make it in show biz and fall back onto the "debunker" game in order to generate faux PR images. . . even the guys that are respected as being talented moan when it comes to the plethora of idiots that follow this course "just to belong".

I've found that many of these guys, such as Banachek, are pretty down to earth and fair; Steve and I have had several conversations on this very thing and he's pointed out how the fanaticism Billy is referring to, comes mainly from those that want to prove a point. . . to themselves. They are generally insecure nerds afraid of life and not being able to explain away things. . . frequently things they've personally encountered and found themselves powerless over.

When it comes to the bias within the Believer's world. . . well, we're looking at people that are afraid to see things in a more simple and realistic manner. They are dependent on the fantastic and phenomenal and afraid to stand on their own two feet. This type envelopes a wide range of believer types; fanatics that seem to preach peace & love while being responsible for more world atrocities, wars and enslavement than any political or military element in history. So if we are going to scream and point fingers at the naysayers, we need to look at our own positions as well and the shortcomings therein IF integrity is going to exist within our arguments.