In his post "They Are Not Skeptics," Pat Curley of the Screw Loose Change blog informed his rearders today that we 9/11 skeptics do not fit the bill to be called as such. Here is the intro to Debunking the Debunkers blog contributor Scootle Royale's new blog, which refutes this assertion:
Scootle The Anti-Skeptic
December 31, 2010
SkepticDenialism.blogspot.com
Hi I'm Scootle Royale. I'm 20 years old and I'm from Wiltshire in England (The home of Stonehenge).
When I was a young teenager going through secondary school, I was very supportive of the scientific establishment. I was strongly anti-religious, I was pro-globalism, and I genuinely believed the only way to make poverty history was to genocide everyone living in poverty and start again! In the summer of 2007, as I was about to start a university course on the wonders of data-mining, I watched an episode of South Park that completely changed my life. It was called "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" and it was a parody of 9/11 truth. Although the episode was basically a hitpiece, the writers inserted enough points in there to spark my interest in the subject.
Unlike most people however, I took a more neutral approach. I read the Popular Mechanics debunking piece quite early on and at first I fell for it as it seemed very authoritative and credible. When I did deeper research however, I realised that the piece was nothing more than propaganda. It was full of strawman arguments, ad-hominem attacks, arguments of ignorance/incredulity and appeals to authority. The biggest shock I got from studying 9/11 was the revelation that scientists lie! I never really trusted the government or the media, so I had no problem coming to terms with the idea that they were lying about 9/11, but I was very naive when it came to the scientific community. I always thought of it as as an open forum, free from political motivation, religious persecution and corporate control, where anyone can voice their dissent and put forward alternative theories. Oh, how wrong I was!
Most "skeptic" and "anti-denialist" arguments, seem to fit the following template: "9/11 truthers claim ___, science says ___", "global warming deniers claim ___, science says ___", "creationists claim ___, science says ___", "anti-vaxers claim ___, science says ___" etc. What they never seem to understand is that it's the so-called "science" that these groups are questioning! For one thing, it isn't "science" saying those things, it's scientists ... difference! I know the scientific method. I trust the scientific method. What I don't trust is scientific institutions. Investigators at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a supposedly credible scientific authority, have been caught commiting so many blatant acts of scientific fraud in their so called "investigations" of the World Trade Center collapses, that it's hard to keep track of them all!
And when you look into other things as well, such as the climate change debate, the vaccine debate, and the intelligent design/evolution debate, you see more examples of fraud and persecution on the part of the scientific establishment. This is why, when it comes to these issues, one needs look at both sides equally from a more neutral perspective, and not invest yourself entirely in one side. I check out the 9/11 debunking sites just as often, if not more often, than I check out the 9/11 truth sites. And they do have alot of good points. They do a good job at debunking things like Pentagon no-jetliner claims and other stuff that I believe the truth movement needs to drop. But when it comes to the forensic evidence of demolition of the three World Trade Center buildings, they're completely full of shit! And again, it's the same story in the other debates.
If I were to sum up my world view in one word it would be "anti-skeptic". I am a skeptic, a true skeptic. But unlike so-called professional skeptics like James Randi, Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins, the SGU people etc, I don't violate my own rules and commit blatant logical fallacies when it's convenient. It is they who are the real denialists, and I guess that makes me a skeptic denialist!
This is my personal blog. After contributing to the 9/11 debunkers blog for more than a year, I decided to start my own blog so I can talk about things outside the scope of that blog. On this blog I'll discuss all kinds of things, including 9/11, other conspiracies, the Illuminati, mind control, intelligent design and evolution, unexplained mysteries, the nature of reality and other random stuff I find interesting or entertaining, such as music and pop culture.
If you wish to contact me you can do so either through my YouTube account or my Prison Planet Forum account. I'm on these sites pretty much all the time and I check my private messages more often than I check my emails.
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Pat does mention one thing that could convince him:
"I can remember at least one occasion when I actually did wonder if they had something; when Barry Jennings' story came to light. But it wasn't long until I realized that Jennings just had his timeline wrong, which explained the difference between his experience and everybody else's."
Well if that's all it takes, then please take a detailed look at the matter Pat and join the ranks of the true skeptics!
Related Info:
Debunking PseudoSkeptics - CSICOP, James Randi, Michael Shermer, etc
Why James Randi, Michael Shermer and other Pseudoskeptics are NOT real skeptics!
How Pseudoskeptics hijack "Skepticism" to mean its opposite: Disinformation, Mind Control and Suppression
I have seen the light! [Satire]
Circular Rationalism
JREF Forum posts: "Comprehensive characteristics of the pseudoskeptic"
911 Truth: Michael Shermer's Amateur Disinformation Attempt Fails (again!)
Debunking Myths on Conspiracy Theories
Refuting the Hollow Arguments of the So-called 9/11 Debunkers & Truthers
