TED Lecture: Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception

[mod mom]

Michael Shermer says the human tendency to believe strange things -- from alien abductions to dowsing rods -- boils down to two of the brain's most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble.


http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception.html



He talks about conspiracies and says you can prove 9/11 wasn't an inside job by the Bush administration....-because it worked. ;)

[villager]

1. That's the thing about professional "skeptics" -- they're rarely skeptical about "official...

...explanations" for things.

You'd think they'd be a little more, well, skeptical.

[Warpy]

2. That's where you're wrong

Of course they're skeptical about the official explanation. It's just that they're skeptical about people who think they have TEH TROOF.

Skeptics poke holes and acknowledge the questions. Truthers and other conspiracy fans think they can supply the answers.

[villager]

3. So what "official explanations" of the last 40 or so years have "professional skeptics"

actually questioned?

I'd be curious to know....

[Posteritatis]

4. ... All of them? (nt)

[villager]

5. Really? Not 9/11, according to Shermer....

Where do they weigh in on the JFK assassination -- the "professional doubters," that is? do they doubt the Warren Commission?

[Posteritatis]

6. Ahh, so you're defining "actually questioned" as "agrees with villager." (nt)

[villager]

7. Ah, so instead of actually answering the question, you're putting words in people's mouths

Again, answer the question: What rigorous questioning of "official explanations" have "professional skeptics" engaged in in the past 40 years?

And again, only post if you can actually answer. The belittling snark -- while entirely expected -- is best left for your next "Skeptics" gathering...

[Warpy]

8. All of them, dear

which you'd know had you been paying attention to more than the conspiracy theory nuts.

[villager]

9. throw some links at me, dear -- so I can see the officially skeptical questioning!

And -- dear -- I promise to pay attention! ;-)

[JitterbugPerfume]

10. good grief

get a grip

[villager]

12. I agree -- at least one person in this discussion should be able to substantively answer a question!

without snark, to boot!

but that doesn't seem forthcoming...

[mod mom]

11. The speaker was a climate crisis skeptic until the facts changed his mind.

[villager]

13. Shermer? That's good...

I neither entirely agree nor disagree with him, based on his other comments...

But this veneration of someone simply because they label themselves a "skeptic" has always been odd... just as I find most professional skeptics opt for a "fish in the barrel" approach to their denouncements, rather than mulling the web of "official truths" that we're constantly handed....

[Fumesucker]

14. I wonder if he was "skeptical" of claims of Iraqi WMDs before the war commenced?

Something tells me he kept his skepticism to himself in that case.