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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
 Posted - 03/05/2003 : 08:47:09 [Permalink]
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"Everything that Chomsky puts forth is absolutely accurate." What a wonderful example of the type of thing I'm talking about.
I just reread some of Rubysue's nonsense and was amazed again to see people who claim to be sensible and educated thinking what she presented was brilliant. Just insane. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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ktesibios
SFN Regular
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2003 : 15:51:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Kil
quote:
Vailant Dancer: Weekly World News and other papers of their caliber (no matter how funny I find them)
I may be with you on the other tabloids, but the Weekly World News is clearly parody. In fact, I would love to write for them....
(Looks at Kil's avatar)
I call conflict of interest!
Actually, I agree with you about the WWN. They're so obviously over-the-top camp that the paper could be used as a sort of intelligence test. I wonder how much their staff has to spend every year for dental help in dislodging their tongues from their cheeks.
For my list:
Any religious figure promoting the idea that the contents of their Sacred Gobbledybook take precedence over observable reality.
Political figures who promote their policies not with rational argument but with appeals to prejudice and emotion, and their PR enablers.
A commercial media which fills its channels with fluff and acts as if "balance" means not differentiating between the likely, the possible and the oh-give-me-a-break-and-go-tell-it-to-Sweeney. 
The Conspiracy Industry. 
The New Age Industry. 
The Alternative Medicine Industry. 
Actually, all of these can thrive because of the widespread lack of healthy thinking skills among us. I can envisage how the categories of charlatan mentioned in this thread help to maintain that lack, but what it is that creates the initial opening, the lack of immunity that lets the infection get started, escapes me. The educational system just seems like too obvious and easy a target.
Anybody have any thoughts on the origin of the predisposing weakness? |
"The Republican agenda is to turn the United States into a third-world shithole." -P.Z.Myers |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2003 : 18:36:10 [Permalink]
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I agree with - apparently - quite a few professional skeptics in that the predisposing weakness is evolutionarily (new word?) present in our heads. We evolved in an environment which would have rewarded lots of unsubstantiated pattern-matching, which our brains do very well, even when no pattern really exists.
To me, one way this would have worked is by causing a "threat" to be perceived when one isn't necessarily known to exist. Treating every new creature you encounter as a complete unknown will get you hurt or killed, if you don't quickly learn what, in general, a predator might look like. In other words, you don't wonder if the tiger will be your friend if you've already lost a hand to a lion (pathetic example, I know, but I'm winging this). This could, possibly, also explain some phobias, maybe.
On the flip side, understanding that most of the blob-like things hanging from trees are "food," will also help a person survive, even if you occassionally get ill from eating the wrong fruits.
So, using alt medicine as an example, the perceived threat might be something like the pharmaceutical industry, which could terrify people into seeking help from non-doctors who haven't been "bought" by the drug companies. And the post-hoc fallacy can easily "invent" rewards where none exist ("I got better after wearing this copper bracelet!").
The first con-man was the first person who noticed these tendencies, and exploited them for personal gain. Along the lines of "if you give me that pig you've just killed, I'll give you this, um, stick which keeps hyenas away!" (to slightly steal from the Simpsons).
It's actually more surprising that we've come as far as we have than it is alarming that there's so much gullibility around today. The latter is to be expected.
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- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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