Debunking Denialism

Defending science against the forces of irrationality.

Comment Guidelines

Blogs with an interacting comment section is a great way to facilitate honest and open discussion. However, with this feature comes the possibility of abuse carried out by various miscellaneous trolls and troublemakers.

Last updated: 2012-08-13.

1. Getting a comment published on this blog is a privilege, not a right. I have the ability to delete or decline publication of any comment or removing the privilege of posting comments temporarily or permanently as I see fit. However, I will try to be fair. Following the guidelines outlined in this comment policy will not incur my blog administrator wrath.

2. There is currently no automatic comment moderation, except for comments that contain two or more links.

3. Spam and endless blocks of copy/past texts not related to the topic will routinely be deleted. Severe cases may be treated as a bannable offense.

4. Excessive verbal abuse and irresponsible character assassination is not acceptable, although some rare and precise insults may be acceptable in the right circumstances (post at own risk). Severe cases may be treated as a bannable offense.

5. Any kind of group discrimination, including but not limited to, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, ableism, ageism etc. is unacceptable. Severe cases may be treated as a bannable offense.

6. Encouraging other people to harm themselves either directly or by telling them to stop using their medication is unacceptable. This is a bannable offense.

7. Repeating the same old canards over and over again without addressing counterarguments, being a dishonest troll and repeatedly posting mind-bogglingly stupid stuff is unacceptable. This is a bannable offense.

8. Most commenters that are found guilty of violating a guideline that counts as a bannable offense will get two warnings. If they continue after that, they will be banned. I reserve the right to ban users that perform severe violations of these rules right away, since they are unlikely to modify their behavior in response to warnings.

9. These guidelines may be changed at any point at my discretion.

If you have any questions or comments about this comment policy, please use the contact form.

Users who have gotten their comment privileges remove and why:

—> Stop.Psychiatry: anti-psychiatry troll engaging in irresponsible character assassination, spamming, and repeating same old canards over and over without addressing counterarguments. Tried to evade ban by using a proxy multiple times, then continuing with personal attacks.
—> nickfederale: anti-psychiatry trolling, doesn’t address counterarguments and attempts to evade ban with multiple accounts.
—> John Radon: anti-psychiatry trolling, tells people to stop taking prescribed medication, which encourages harm.
—> Science: irresponsible character assassination, excessive verbal abuse, posting mindbogglingly stupid stuff.
—> Simon: irresponsible character assassination.

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"I realize that 'complementary and alternative medicine' (CAM) or, what quackademics like to call it now, 'integrative medicine' (IM) is meant to refer to 'integrating' alternative therapies into SBM or 'complementing' SBM with a touch of the ol’ woo, but I could never manage to understand how 'integrating' quackery with SBM would do anything but weaken the scientific foundation of medicine."

- David Gorski, cancer surgeon and debunker of pseudoscience (source).

"Denialists [...] replace the rigorous and open-minded skepticism of science with the inflexible certainty of ideological commitment."

- Michael Specter, author and responsible science journalist (Denialism, pp. 2-3).

"If I am ignorant about a phenomenon, that is a fact about my state of mind, not a fact about the phenomenon; to worship a phenomenon because it seems so wonderfully mysterious, is to worship your own ignorance; a blank map does not correspond to a blank territory, it is just somewhere we haven’t visited yet"

- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, rationality expert and AI researcher (source).

"As an aside, it is ironic that CAM proponents often simultaneously tout how individualized their treatment approach is, but then claim that one product or treatment can cure all cancer. Meanwhile they criticize the alleged cookie-cutter approach of mainstream medicine, which is actually producing a more and more individualized (and evidence-based) approach to such things as cancer."

- Steven Novella, neurologist and founder of the New England Skeptical Society. (source).

"While Galileo was a rebel, not all rebels are Galileo."

- Norman Levitt, mathematician and critic of anti-science postmodernism (quoted in Paul Offit's Autism's False Prophets, p. 37).

"If chiropractic manipulation of the neck had been a pill, it would have been pulled by the [regulatory authorities]. Even if the risk for vascular injury is low, the risk is not outweighed by the a demonstrated benefit."

- Mats Reimer, Swedish pediatrician, scientific skeptic and blogger (source, my translation).

"It is so addictive to make videos to people like Fringe [an unreasonable race realist - Emil Karlsson's note] simply because of that pleasing wet snap that you hear inside your head every time you smash up their worldview and show it to be based on bullshit and half-truths. It is enjoyable. It is better than most drugs and I think that is why I make Youtube videos. It is interesting to see how people's minds work when they have a preconception they start with and then work from there as oppose to enter into something trying to actively not acknowledge any preconception and go were the evidence leads them."

- TheSkepticalHeretic, Youtube skeptic and debunker of race realists (source).

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