#skepticism

[isitcorrect]

So the right-wing press is currently in meltdown about Queen being cancelled, they're cancelling Queen you guys. Those woke Millennials and Gen Z made them remove "Fat Bottomed Girls" from their Greatest Hits album.

So is this true? Erm, no. What blog do you think this is.

There's a bit of deception in the headline here, which is of course all most people read. "Fat Bottomed Girls cut from Queen's greatest hits to appease younger audience". But if you go on Spotify right now, you'll find several versions of it, still uncancelled and listenable. So what gives?

Well, by "to appease younger audience" they don't mean Millennials or Gen Z. They mean much younger. See, the song was only removed...on a platform for literal children.

Specifically, children 3-12. We're not talking about Millennials (whose youngest members are in their twenties, by the way) being sensitive here, we're talking about eight year olds. Now, whether "Fat Bottomed Girls" is inappropriate for children or not is a discussion you can have, but it's a discussion no one is having, because they're reading a misleading headline designed as right-wing outrage bait, and talking about it as if the song has been banned for everyone, and not been left off one niche music service for grade schoolers. What a sweet life these people lead, you don't have to read anything when you can just get mad over a headline and decide it's the result of whichever group you hate the most

Anyway you can still listen to any Queen song you like, provided you aren't getting your music from one specific website for children

#music #skepticism #debunking #factchecking #queen

[biocheminpics]

As a rule, I try not to actively make fun of people dying, even if I don't feel they deserve mourning.

But this image. It's so concise it's poetic. It's so encompassing it's beautiful. It's everything. I've been staring at it for hours.

Whenever someone says, "I did my own research," while talking about GMOs, Nuclear power, vaccines, or another hot-button science topic I want you to remember this image. Because it is the pinnacle of hubris in the face of the unrestricted knowledge we've been blessed with.

#science #science side of tumblr #sciblr #skepticism #skeptical #gmo #anti vaxxers #vaccines #oceangate #titanic submersible #titanic submarine

[philosophybits]

Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?

Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

#philosophy #quotes #Bertrand Russell #The Problems of Philosophy #knowledge #certainty #doubt #uncertainty #skepticism

[quasi-normalcy]

#witchcraft #witchblr #witches #magic #sorcery #occultism #occult #skepticism #religion #wicca

[lizardsfromspace]

"We found a PhD who agrees with our strange and seemingly pseudoscientific cause!"

Do they actually have a PhD in a relevant field, or are they an expert in something unrelated who just assumed knowing one thing means they're an expert in everything

"...they're a doctor!"

#skepticism #legit every time they drag out a scientist who supports them #it's like...a physicist supporting biology woo or vice versa #or with creationism it's always an engineer

[thesparkwhowalks]

I think Ghostbusters is one of the few paranormal-based franchises I fuck with because it treats the paranormal as science with rules. While Insidious says "hey, if you misuse an EMF detector and field recorder, you can detect ghosts and talk to them with help of a psychic", Ghostbusters says "with a particle accelerator and a disregard for safety, you can capture everything from a dead guy to an old god because beings that exist in dimensions beyond human perception manifest with a distinct negative charge."

#i liked ghostbusters frozen empire #but i am so squarely in its targeted demographic #so i should damn well like it #ghostbusters #the real ghostbusters #ghostbusters frozen empire #90s trash checking in #skepticism

[thirdity]

I know nothing. There is nothing that I know. But the heart senses certain things. Let your heart speak, question faces, do not listen to tongues.

Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

#skepticism #awareness #understanding #inquiry #senses #perception #experience #quotes #Eco #Umberto Eco #The Name of the Rose

[lifewithchronicpain]

I hate weight loss ads that show a stomach going from fat to flat with absolutely no stretching of the skin. As you get fat your skin expands and it doesn't magically go back down if you lose weight, it sags. These people either get skin surgery or the torsos are not the same. Obviously if they don't even show the faces, how can you trust it to be the same person? Or the egregious ones online where it's different people but they try to get away with it with fast clips or face angles. And I'm so sick of being force fed this crap when I'm obese because I'm sick and there's no magic cure for what I'm going through. So I choose to accept reality and love myself anyway and assure my fellow fat people this shit is so fucking fake.

#fatphobia #weight loss cw #weight loss ads #scams #skepticism

[crazycatsiren]

You can have faith and be skeptical. As a matter of fact I encourage you to.

#religions #spirituality #faith #skepticism #polytheism #paganblr #religious advice

[creature-wizard]

Remember, many spiritual scam artists will tell you that the stuff they're trying to sell you can be found in "ancient texts." Be skeptical if:

They're not able or willing to name the exact texts they claim they're citing.

You can't access and read these texts for yourself to make sure they actually say what they're claimed to say.

There's no evidence that the texts actually date back as far back as claimed; EG, there are no surviving ancient copies of the texts, nor are there any other ancient works that cite, criticize, or even just mention them in passing.

Never, ever trust anyone who refuses to cite their sources, let alone insults or belittles you for asking about them. Never trust anyone who refuses to give you anything that can actually be checked and verified.

#religion #spirituality #scams #spiritual scams #witchblr #witchcraft #skepticism #discernment

[philosophybits]

My doubt is terrible. — Nothing can stop me — it is a hunger of damnation — I can devour every argument, every consolation, and reassurance — I rush past every obstacle at a speed of 50,000 miles a second.

Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers

#philosophy #quotes #Søren Kierkegaard #Journals and Papers #doubt #skepticism #reason #rationality

[danskjavlarna]

"Such entrenched denial may indicate that denial is a habitual coping method" (Maryann Amodeo).  

  "I am not a ghost and did not see a ghost."  From We Can Read Magic and Make-believe Book Two by Gerrard & McInnes, 1965.

It's been said that we still have only the crudest understanding of ghosts. Here are a thousand vintage ghosts I've invited over.

#ghost #skepticism #vintage illustration #illustration #1960s

[therobotmonster]

I saw this on FB and was struck at the intersection of the idea of the unnatural and the idea of the supernatural.

Both assume that something can exist outside of nature. The "unnatural' presents this with an inherent idea of wrongness and tied into the naturalistic fallacy. "This doesn't happen in my limited model of the natural world, thus it is bad."

The concept of the "supernatural*" does essentially the same, but instead of proposing malevolence, it assumes the unknowable. But if a supernatural phenomenon can impact the world to the point that it is observable, that's measurable, and thus knowable, at least in parts.

In both cases, those assumptions block exploration and understanding in favor of comfortable assumptions. For "unnatural" that's the assumption that there both is a "normal" and that said "normal" is also good. For "Supernatural" it keeps the supernatural explanation for a phenomenon viable against other explanations, valuing the pleasure of a fascinating mystery in the face of the mundane causes.

The Natural is huge and worth studying. It's where all your friends and your stuff is, after all.

*This is not to be confused withe the concept of the paranormal, which is just "shit that's weird and we don't know what's going on." Supernature defies the possibility of exploration, while paranormality demands it.

#vague ramblings #unnatural #supernatural phenomenon #paranormal #philosophy #LGBTQ #skepticism

[whereserpentswalk]

Remember that radfems aren't the first time in internet history the right has stolen a left wing movement through stowing division. Skeptic YouTube had the same thing happen ten years ago.

In the 2000s and early 2010s skeptic/atheist YouTube (and their entire community its not just YouTube) was left wing. Their biggest by far target were evangelicals. And when they did start arguing with feminists (though this was the beginning of the end, as it was used as an in by the right), they were largely talking agaisnt neoliberal capitalist feminism from a leftist perspective.

The atheist vitriol, while often going way too far, was still the rage of a marginalized group. Atheists are unquestionably marginalized in the west, often in the same ways as queer people. The atheist internet, though very very flawed, was the first marginalized community on the internet to make a name for themselves. And I say this as someone whose no longer an atheist despite being raised one.

The skeptic community drifted right wing around 2016, mostly by becoming afraid of other minority groups. And, like all reactionaries, reactionary elements in the group turned anger at capitalist systems into anger at marginalized people.

And just like how people who used to call themselves feminists are now fighting for the most ridged gender rolls imaginable, most of those people who used to call themselves atheists are currently either converted to the worst forms of chrsitantiy, or defending them as western values.

If you want to see the future of people like the lgb alliance, look at Sargon of Akkad, someone who used to be an atheist demsoc, who has now become a reactionary mouthpiece, defending evangelical Christians on his podcast, until the end of time.

#196 #my thougts #leftist #leftism #feminism #feminist #radical feminism #athiesm #athiest #skepticism #sargon of akkad #social issues #social justice #socialist #socialism #anarchy #anarchism #antifa #anti facist #anti facism #anticapitalism #anti capitalism #queer #fuck terfs #terfism

[per-asperaa-ad-astra]

Dr. Carl Sagan on the meaning of science.

#science #carl sagan #skepticism #universe #knowledge

[civanticism]

#free thought #evidence #skepticism