Michael Shermer: Be Skeptical of Popular Opinion

[@williamrunner6718]

This is a good piece by Mike Shermer.

[@snorgonofborkkad]

This hits home for me. I remember my very first IRL encounter with what we used to call SJW's. Today she would be identified as a critical racist. This woman kept beating me over the head with statements like "it's a fact", "you can't argue with it", "Do you think you're smarter than me? You’re not immediately agreeing with me so you must think you’re smarter than me". When I responded with "I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just skeptical of your claims”, it was like she was trying to interact with an immovable object that she had never encountered before. She didn’t even understand what the word “skeptical” meant. I asked her if she had an education (which pissed her off) and she said "I went to a liberal arts school". These people are not being taught how to think, read, or speak. They're being indoctrinated in alt-left activist propaganda mills. They come out the other side more ignorant and misinformed about the world. And the nastiest part, they come out selfish and hateful.

[@nancygerette]

Typical of the right-wingers who love FAIR - one personal anecdote is all the evidence you have. It's good enough for the rightwing grifters who comprise FAIR of course.

[@michaeltrollan]

Spot on. Michael Shermer is exactly right.

[@eddampier]

Great work as always FAIR

[@timh1575]

This is great. Keep it up, FAIR!

[@ProkofNY]

I came to FAIR via my skepticism.

[@streglof]

Trigger warnings are like "Watch out! A puppy!" The warning itself will likely scare you more than the actual subject.

[@amadeusdebussy6736]

And, even when you accept a claim, you should do so provisionally. That is, it should always remain open to being revised when and if new information comes up.

[@Johnwilkinsonofficial]

great mix of elements in this video, and a positive vision offered. more of this please !

[@FairForAll_Org]

More to come!

[@ray7707]

To my eyes and ears, this is a well put together snapshot of a call to be skeptical of the Critical Social Justice movement and its underpinnings. This need not be about skepticism in general or "popular opinion". It was produced and presented by FAIR, after all.

[@overtonpendulum2071]

Yes, everyone should be more skeptical of the popular opinion that races and sexes are equal.

[@NousNoesis225]

Great video. Thank you, Michael Shermer and FAIR. Maybe correct the misspelling of "association" at 3:22?

[@AndyWearsPants]

You forgot to list historical determinism.

[@victorcates9330]

It makes sense to be sceptical to big ideas, but a lot of the problem is crude application. Even if a core idea holds, it's worth dealing with it carefully. A study might say we know some assertion to a certain probability based on an examination of problem at scale. Then people strip aware nuance, probability and apply scale to the individual. You can go after the study as flawed (if it is), but there are decent gains if you convince people to just be a smidge less absolute. If someone believes in implicit bias, they might still be hesitant if they're open to statistic outliers. If someone doesn't like the cops generally, they might still be open to an individual cop being good. For people who erect gallows to hang the unbelievers, it can be a big idea but probably requires a big ol' dash of zealotry.

[@mijlaid]

Can we fix the typo at 3:30 please? It says Implicit Assosiation Test.

[@thomasreaves588]

Does he believe that we should apply the principle of ECREE to the study of the Holocaust?

[@SpookyNero]

I feel like KZbin is trying to bury your awesome channel. After all, KZbin knows what's best for us, right. 😊

[@IAmNotAHorse]

Good video. Heads up you spelled “association” wrong when discussing the IAT.

[@nicmart]

I’m also skeptical of unpopular opinions. Shermer and his ilk are completely unskeptical about psychiatry, which relies entirely on diagnoses that are not falsifiable.

[@seankessler9755]

What is it exactly that I should be skeptical of? "Popular opinion" seems kind of broad.

[@seankessler9755]

Mr. Shermer extols the virtue of the Scientific Method at the beginning of the video, then proceeds to debate cartoonishly depicted straw men throughout the rest of it. Color me unconvinced.

[@terrasolaris5104]

You answered yourself. It is broad. Be skeptical of everything. If you couldn't infer that, I don't know what to tell you.

[@seankessler9755]

@@terrasolaris5104 I am skeptical of everything. If that were the only point of the video, I'd be with you here, but the video obviously has some ulterior motives and specific ideas that it's trying to undermine. It's definitely more targeted than "being skeptical of popular opinion."

[@benjaminperez969]

Sean Kessler, (re)read Mark Twain's essay "Corn-pone Opinions" (now easily found online) and (re)read Carl Sagan's essay "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection" (also now easily found online); in fact, those two fairly short reads arrive at-in less rushed, less cartoonish ways-what Shermer's getting at. Like you, I'm not a fan of rushed, "cartoonish" arguments, even if I agree with them; that said, these cartoon-driven ("mini-arguments") aren't for individuals like us (who don't mind taking the time to take the time to read, who, indeed, make the time to do so), but, rather, are for the many people today who only have a short amount of time to watch short clips (e.g., working parents trying to figure out what's up with-what's wrong with-the CRT-informed/CRT-inspired coursework that they're children are doing, sometimes as early as early grade school). As rushed, as "lite" as the content & arguments conveyed in these FAIR cartoons are, they're far and away better than the various far-less-skeptical, far-more-"corn-pone"-enriched, far-more-"baloney"-enriched content that they're attempting to counter. (Am I making sense - or at least enough sense?)

[@terrasolaris5104]

@@seankessler9755 I agree with you, yes. Though, this is an organization like any other that has ulterior motives. Stating the obvious.

[@shockcat5988]

I am skeptical of the very concept of rac**t it has at least eight different meanings it’s impossible not to be one if you are targeted, (the people that use the word the most exempt themselves from the same type of behavior that they condemn). The definition was changed again due to political pressure it’s not a real word nor real concept. The word rac**t or R-word is a derogatory racial slur with classism attached, used exclusively against people of European descent.

[@AndyWearsPants]

Using a Nazi symbol was appropriate, but there should always be an example of a Communist showing the similarities with it to be balanced. Part of problem is the false implication that intolerant ideology only exists on the right. The mission of an organization like FAIR can never be achieved, because it will always get undermined, when asymmetrical attributions of intolerance are made in this way.

[@sciencetroll6304]

This is a boy who's scared to think about a lot of things.

[@overtonpendulum2071]

So according to Shermer, you should fire people based on their political opinion? This published by a channel that fights intolerance?

[@Thaimiles]

I’m skeptical of your comment because I didn’t think that’s what was implied at all. Curious 🧐

[@Brian-gw5hg]

The music bed in this video feels out of balance (too loud). Very distracting.