Name that Skeptic!

Contestant A:

Michael Shermer claims in his Skeptic column that people who believe in conspiracy theories share four traits:


1. patternicity, or a tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise;

2. agenticity, or the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agent;

3. confirmation bias, or the seeking and finding of confirmatory evidence for what we already believe;

4. hindsight bias, or tailoring after-the-fact explanations to what we already know happened.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/four-reasons-why-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories/762


Contestant B:

Saman Mohammadi claims that people reject conspiracy theories in a wholesale manner for 5 reasons:

1. Fear. There are many dimensions to how fear blocks people from discovering, accepting, and telling the truth about 9/11.

2. Ignorance. Due to the systemic blackout of the evidence showing that the official 9/11 story is a lie, people just don’t know.

3. A False Sense of Superiority And A False Sense of Knowledge.The smugness of 9/11 truth deniers is hard to stomach. They actually look down on new information and new knowledge, which is strange to me.

4. Collective Brainwashing. The brainwashing of America, Israel, the West, and the world since the false flag September 11 events is definitely one of the biggest reasons why people reject alternative interpretations of 9/11 and the war on terror

5. Institutional Silence And Cover-Up. The culture at the top of the top of modern American society and other societies as well operates on a basic principle: “keep your mouth shut, or else.”

http://http://disquietreservations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/why-people-reject-conspiracy-theories.html

This opens a new dilemma: which would you prefer ... no answer at all, or an answer contrary to your preference? I decided in favor of b. The silence was just too sad. cn

I was just talking shit about that asshole, Saman Mohammadi earlier today. That guy jumped on the "Fuck Julian Assange" bandwagon recently concluding that Wikileaks is not interested in uncovering truth because of some speech Assange gave a few years ago. Assange was annoyed with people obsessed with looney 9/11 theories when there are real conspiracies playing out right in front of our eyes. Saman went on to refer to 9/11 as an inside job and said Assange just wanted to disgrace the military.

http://disquietreservations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/wikileaks-end-your-war-on-911-truth.html

I love that 9/11 shit as much as the next guy but let's get real. Wikileaks doesn't release crackpot speculation that defies logic.

cannabineer said:

This opens a new dilemma: which would you prefer ... no answer at all, or an answer contrary to your preference? I decided in favor of b. The silence was just too sad. cn

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Thank you and maybe I shouldn't point out that since this is a thread intended for you it was your own silence you broke? I really thought you'd get an ironic chuckle from a dude writing a skeptic column that immediately dismisses all theories involving a conspiracy as most likely wrong without checking them out at all.

bedspirit said:

I was just talking shit about that asshole, Saman Mohammadi earlier today. That guy jumped on the "Fuck Julian Assange" bandwagon recently concluding that Wikileaks is not interested in uncovering truth because of some speech Assange gave a few years ago. Assange was annoyed with people obsessed with looney 9/11 theories when there are real conspiracies playing out right in front of our eyes. Saman went on to refer to 9/11 as an inside job and said Assange just wanted to disgrace the military.

http://disquietreservations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/wikileaks-end-your-war-on-911-truth.html

I love that 9/11 shit as much as the next guy but let's get real. Wikileaks doesn't release crackpot speculation that defies logic.

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I just came upon the articles right next to each other in the search list idk really any more except that I don't think wikileaks is on the other side of things I mean maybe this dude was making the point that what he revealed should not be causing all the shit it is considering all the worse that has never and will never be leaked?

Have you seem Bill Maher's tap dance around the subject ? W's too stupid to have pulled off something so complex otherwise you'd have me I am just stuck at this point. I think that is 1. Fear

MellowFarmer said:

Thank you and maybe I shouldn't point out that since this is a thread intended for you it was your own silence you broke? I really thought you'd get an ironic chuckle from a dude writing a skeptic column that immediately dismisses all theories involving a conspiracy as most likely wrong without checking them out at all.

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I'm honored, I think.

However my choice of skeptic had less to do with my general rejection of grand conspiracies as unworkable/unconcealable, than it had to do with the criteria selected by each candidate.
Candidate A chose reasons that had to do with sound practice of reasoning.
Candidate B took a browbeating approach, an appeal to emotion.

The factette that the candidate with sound reasoning practices reflects my opinion is pure bonus but not the decisive thing for me. cn

cannabineer said:

I'm honored, I think.

However my choice of skeptic had less to do with my general rejection of grand conspiracies as unworkable/unconcealable, than it had to do with the criteria selected by each candidate.
Candidate A chose reasons that had to do with sound practice of reasoning.
Candidate B took a browbeating approach, an appeal to emotion.

The factette that the candidate with sound reasoning practices reflects my opinion is pure bonus but not the decisive thing for me. cn

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I never imagined you would choose A You said you chose B first are you feeling ok?

MellowFarmer said:

I never imagined you would choose A You said you chose B first are you feeling ok?

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Oh dear. I chose a and posted choosing b. I meant a. I'm not running on all cylinders, it seems. cn

Most of what Mr. Shermer said are common traits of most human beings at one time or another, maybe not #2 so much , but the others I think are general qualities all humans share.

NoDrama said:

Most of what Mr. Shermer said are common traits of most human beings at one time or another, maybe not #2 so much , but the others I think are general qualities all humans share.

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I find #2 to be more the case than not. Every religious person conforms, and it's not limited to the religious. cn

Some people just kind of stop wasting breath on it when we see we've nothing to gain or accomplish by bothering. Moving on to new things, 9/11 is a historical event, the official history is taught to 2nd graders as fact just like Columbus discovered America.

abandonconflict said:

Some people just kind of stop wasting breath on it when we see we've nothing to gain or accomplish by bothering. Moving on to new things, 9/11 is a historical event, the official history is taught to 2nd graders as fact just like Columbus discovered America.

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Wasting breath on what exactly? What predisposes people to embrace grand conspiracy as a likely human condition? cn

I can't explain away the motives of others. I'm just saying it is fruitless to embrace such a perspective.

I think the best perspective is the uncertainty.