Nicholas Conrad on Nostr: I was in the budding online skeptic movement in the mid 2000s to the early 2010s, but ...

I was in the budding online skeptic movement in the mid 2000s to the early 2010s, but they went from "no sacred cows" to calling themselves "brights" (implying of course that everyone else is 'dim') and refusing to discuss or debate a whole range of topics from atheism to climate change because they were obviously right, and debate would only elevate the "other side". They came up with the "climate denier" and "science denier" smears. I was very disappointed with the whole community.

It's one thing to say "I do not have time to debate these obvious things." It is quite another thing to say "these obvious things are above scrutiny and nobody should ever entertain debate about them." The former is perfectly rational, but the latter seems to me to be anti-rational.