Hello everyone! Recently I was watching TAM videos and in the sidebar I saw a video from this guy named “Steve Trueblue” and he was going around talking hate about skepticism and skeptical organizations. In his videos he would either make stuff up or go out and twist facts and stories in order to discredit skeptics. I found it funny that anyone that had a different belief from him was automatically called a pseudo-skeptic. He also had other crazy videos on alternative medicine and spiritual advice. After seeing how ridiculous his videos were ( he thought the big bang was a lie) I started messaging him and questioning his beliefs. In one of our conversations I asked him if he knew about the Higgs Boson. In response he put up data from before its discovery and said how it wasn’t true. Many of my attempts to reason with him resulted in the same way and he often changed what he said and made himself sound superior. My question for my fellow skeptics is how can I deal with people like Steve?
Note: If you want to see his ridiculous channel yourself here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/kimbo99
I don’t think you can change people like this, at least not in the short term. They are too heavily invested in this world view. Reason doesn’t work because everyone who argues against their point of view is part of the conspiracy and everything they say is a lie.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try however. Even though you won’t change this persons mind its good to have an opposing point of view on the site so that people who stumble upon it in their explorations will also see your counter arguments and be less easily persuaded by his nonsense. This is not a battle for the minds of the kooks. Its a battle for the minds that are undecided and searching for the best ideas. That is a battle that reason and logic can definitely win if it is done well and we keep at it.
When ever I encounter someone like this, I call out the bullshit briefly and then walk away. I feel guilty debating anyone like this. It literally feels like I’m arguing with a mentally ill person or a 4 yr old on the existence of Santa Clause.
When I first started doing things like marching against war and the like, someone gave me some great advice, in the form of a question,
When you are trying to knock down a wall, do you look for the most solid thickest part?
Obviously, no, but with people, the thick ones really stand out and they are hard to resist. The only value in engaging with them is to do so publicly, so other see there are legitimate questions to be asked and what poor answers are given.