Snarly Skepticism: SN Slang Word Throw Up

This is what my Google alert delivered to my email today:Snarly Skepticism. Okay then.

Owl Synchronicity on JREF

I've been chronicling my owl synchronicites on Orange Orb and Animal Forteana. (Just listed one on the Orb yesterday.) Going over to the old JREF today, I see listed at the top a thread about owls listed in the 'social issues and general topics' section:  Live Owl and her little baby owls!!! 

A virtuous intolerance : Pharyngula

Skeptic, biologist, associate professor at University of Minnesota PZ Myers slams woo: A virtuous intolerance : Pharyngula. Taking a tactic from the skeptoid manifesto, presenting themselves as righteous, alturistic, and deserving of the same moral praises we give to bigots, Myers compares Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK government's John Beddington's "vigorous response to creeping woo" as well as all debunkers and skeptic's fascist intolerance of "woo" to civil rights activists. Oh, pleeeeeeaaaaaasssssssseeeeeeeeeee...

"I really would urge you to be grossly intolerant," he said. "We should not tolerate what is potentially something that can seriously undermine our ability to address important problems."

Now don't get stupid and think that this means I promote creationism, Christianity in schools, or the belief that Earth is five thousand years old.

I wrote about this in 2006:

The Usual Purple Tinged Hyperbole About UFOs

Wandering through the kingdom of anti-UFOism on the internet, I recently came across a few sites with the same message; so-called ‘name calling’ is just as bad as using racial slurs. Labeling the anti-UFOists, skeptics and or debunkers as any of the following: skeptoid, skepti-bunkie, Skepti-bunkie, New Thug, etc. is on the same level as being called any of the heinous names for an ethnic, cultural or racial group. (Also, using such labels as say, New Thugs or skeptibunkies, supports their opinion that the “name caller” is emotionally and psychologically deficient in some way.) The obvious -- that these offended complainers use terms like woo, kook, lunatics, true believers, ‘bleevers, etc. -- well, no need to point that out, so I won’t.

What does need to be pointed out is that this belief that being labeled just what one is, based on observation of their behavior (er, if you’re bashing ufos and ufo experiencers/witnesses/researchers, doesn’t that make you a debunker/skeptic/thug? Answer: yes, yes it does) is hardly “name calling.” A note to the thin skinned: ‘Skepti-bunkie’ is nowhere near the level of being called a f****** moronic idiot or other foul names. Neither is it anywhere close to being called a racist name. What those who are complaining about such silliness need to get is that it is completely disingenuous to pretend one is affronted by these labels, that they are on a par with victims of racial and ethnic slurs. That pompous opinion doesn’t set well with me; being pc has nothing to do with it. It’s insulting and it’s a lie to suggest that being called a ‘skeptibunkie’ is the same as being called an ugly name for someone’s race or ethnicity.


This pretense of being offended by, say, being referred to as a “skeptibunkie” or some other label is just another tactic used by anti-UFOists. Meanwhile, those of us who’ve experienced UFOs in various ways are called mentally ill, intellectually challenged, spiritually needy, liars, drunks, drug users, attention getters, drama queens, and more. Those all are worse than being called a thug, skeptibunkie, or Pelicanist. (Pelicanist is a term coined by UFO researcher Jerome Clark.) Let’s see: mentally ill drug user who’s a liar, or skeptical thug? Hmm, I’ll take ‘skeptical thug’ for eight hundred Alex.

The anti-UFO activists can be offended all he or she likes, sniff and sneer at being mocked, take offense at being called a New Thug, even though that is the behavior so often being exhibited these days (golly gee, what else do you call demands for the cultural cleansing of UFOlogy by non-UFOists?) But they do not get to be so damn arrogant and full of their own importance regarding their Crusade to Rid the World of Woo. (And UFOs -- anything outside of the most hard core nuts and bolts theories -- are considered woo to the skeptibunkie.) It is not honest or accurate for them to align themselves with those that are victims of bigotry, prejudice and hateful epithets. They’re not that important, and neither is their cause.

Speculative Realms: Female Abductee Madonna Complex: A Gender-Identified Blame Game

My response on Gary Haden's Speculative Realms to the Matt Graeber article on alien abductions:
Speculative Realms: Female Abductee Madonna Complex: A Gender-Identified Blame Game

Douglas Adams and the cult of 42 | Books | The Guardian

Douglas Adams and the cult of 42 | Books | The Guardian