James Randi: debunking the king of the debunkers

[Humanist_Activist]

124. A slightly more detailed, more profanity laden answer...

I don't mind stupid people, as long as they confine their stupidity to themselves, but far too many don't, instead they preach it, and preach it with a religious fervor, until they convince others that they are right. Evidence, facts, or knowledge are NOT required, indeed, these are considered anathema, only good for those experts, you know, scientists, doctors, chemists, pharmacists, etc. Facts, knowledge, theories, etc. are only good to lord over the common people with their expertise, their education, their experience, and their scientific studies. Its not like these people spent years in school learning things such as biology, chemistry, physics, and of course, the dreaded maths. Or spent even more time studying the subjects they are interested in, backing up what they learn with additional facts and figures.

We aren't talking about kooks who believe aliens built the pyramids or that bigfoot walks around in Washington state. No, we are talking about faith healers who tell people to throw away their prescriptions. Or those parents whose kid was diagnosed with autism 6 months after their first round of vaccinations, and assumes a causal link, contrary to all evidence, and then tells other parents to NOT vaccinate their kids. But hey, that's fucking harmless, isn't it? Its not like any child ever died during a pertussis outbreak, am I right?

Or what about the alternative medicine industry, which is full of companies taking advantage of people's ignorance to market homeopathy, vitamins, supplements, additives, oils and herbs, etc. Most of which are NOT regulated hardly at all in this country, not even for so much as safety. So you have pills and pills of shit filled with wheat flour or rice flour and not the stuff claimed on their labels, ground glass found in capsules, etc.

Then you have herbal "remedies" that also don't have everything they advertise within them, many of which actually do have a pharmacological effects on the body, but with dosages being unregulated, side effects not advertised, etc. Oh, and then people who buy this unregulated crap then goes on and on about the "evils" of Big Pharma, who, at the very least, have to inform the public of the side effects of their product, not to mention many other regulations.

So fuck me for wanting to find ways to remedy this, some through regulation, a lot through education, and James Randi is doing a fucking service.