A community for taking a critical look at pseudoscience, quackery, and
bald-faced BS. “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.” ~ David Hume
Things we like:
• Thoughtful discussion
• Humor
• Civility
Things we don’t like quite so much: • Trolling
• Low-effort comments and posts
• Personal attacks
• Spam
• URL shorteners
Carl Sagan’s Nine Precepts of Skeptical Thinking:
1. Confirm the reality (independent of the status quo). 2. Encourage debate on
the evidence by proponents of all points of view.
3. Avoid appeals to authority.
4. Recognize that there is always more than one hypothesis.
5. Do not cling to a hypothesis simply because it is yours.
6. Attaching a numerical quantity is key to discriminating hypotheses.
7. In a chain of argument, all the links must work—not just most of them.
8. Everything else being equal, the simplest explanation is the most likely.
9. Proposals that cannot be proven or shown to be false do not have much
scientific value.
Suggested Fediverse Communities • RFK Jr. Watch @lemm.ee
[https://lemm.ee/c/rfk_jr_watch] - Tackling misinformation being spread by
antivaxxer politician, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
• DebunkThis @lemmy.world [https://lemmy.world/c/debunkthis] - an evidence-based
community for debunking misinformation and dubious claims.
Hey, all.
If you’re someone who likes to think critically about extraordinary claims and outlandish statements being made online or in the news, come hang out with us at [email protected]
You can’t have critical takes on quackery without quackery, so I think quacks should be welcomed as long as they refrain from the things we don’t like list. Just as would be the case for the critical thinkers. I’m not saying this is the case, but it is how I would like it.
I know reddit’s /r/skeptic was pretty hostile to people with the views they were interested in debunking. but I’m always on the lookout for people who are interested in debunking/refuting my weird/strange beliefs haha.
obviously I’d mean more towards being able to discuss between the two groups, not just let it get overrun with those kinda views.
btw quacks also consider themselves critical thinkers ;P
If you’re looking for a debunking on a specific idea, claim, or theory then there’s [email protected].
!Skeptic is more for general discussion.
As moderator of both, I’m going to be encouraging open mindedness as much as possible, because as @WowSuchInternetz said, critical thinking goes both ways.
As long as people are civil to each other, it’s all gravy.
I’d hope for just general debate/discussion kinda thing. not necessarily debunking one off view. also debunkthis kinda sounds like it’s not really room for debate idk. I guess we’ll see :)
quacks welcome to chat too? or no?
You can’t have critical takes on quackery without quackery, so I think quacks should be welcomed as long as they refrain from the things we don’t like list. Just as would be the case for the critical thinkers. I’m not saying this is the case, but it is how I would like it.
I know reddit’s /r/skeptic was pretty hostile to people with the views they were interested in debunking. but I’m always on the lookout for people who are interested in debunking/refuting my weird/strange beliefs haha.
obviously I’d mean more towards being able to discuss between the two groups, not just let it get overrun with those kinda views.
btw quacks also consider themselves critical thinkers ;P
If you’re looking for a debunking on a specific idea, claim, or theory then there’s [email protected].
!Skeptic is more for general discussion.
As moderator of both, I’m going to be encouraging open mindedness as much as possible, because as @WowSuchInternetz said, critical thinking goes both ways.
As long as people are civil to each other, it’s all gravy.
I’d hope for just general debate/discussion kinda thing. not necessarily debunking one off view. also debunkthis kinda sounds like it’s not really room for debate idk. I guess we’ll see :)