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The Word "Skeptic" Must Go

Surely I'm not the only one who's felt some sort of awkward silence, gazing at shoes and shifting of feet by people hearing you say you are a skeptic?

Don't people get tired of justifying it?

If we want to be the majority, we need to appeal to the majority. And everyone wants to be smart anyway, so make it good, not awkward.
 
The Atheist said:
Also "Sceptic".



It's been well and truly hijacked and is now worthless.



"I'm skeptical of climate change" means the person is a denier.



"I'm skeptical of vaccines" is double-speak for "I'm ant-vax."



"I'm skeptical of Covid....." means the person is a conspiracist loon.



The term is done and needs to be dropped entirely. I never liked it, have never identified as one, and the word always has negative connotations that are at odds with the idea of critical thinking, which is a process.
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But those uses have always been used.
 
Initially being a climate change, vaccination, or Covid-19 skeptic is a good thing. But holding those positions when presented with facts is not.
 
The Atheist said:
Why even use a label?

Stick to facts.
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Every word is a label. I use a label for my spoon, I use a label for my spleen, I use a label for my country. If you don't have words for things, you can't talk about them.

Now whether the category of person "skeptic" is meaningful as opposed to just a practice of skepticism might be open for discussion, but it's practically kind of a moot point. For any practice that's talked about widely but not universally (practice)er or (practice)ist or whatever will generally become shorthand for the group of people who practice it or value it.

If you have feminism, you will have feminists. If you have vaccination, you will have vaccinators and anti-vaccinators. You have voters and non-voters and on and on. Anything you DO creates a division of people who do it and those who don't, and people will have a word or phrase to denote those groups.
 
Darat said:
But those uses have always been used.
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I'm not sure of the full history of the word, but I'm guessing that "skeptic" has a far older, and wider use history by crank contrarians than as the more modern brand of critical thinking that this forum hopes to embrace.
 
On one side, you have climate skeptics, vaccine skeptics, and all kinds of other woo repackaged as skepticism.

On the other side, you have the "facts and logic" reactionaries that dress of up their neo-chauvinism as rational debate. It doesn't help that so many of the "new atheists" have outed themselves as fash-curious over the years.

I agree, the skeptics "brand" is trash these days.
 
I'm skeptical of the premise. Subcultures have jargons, but they don't own those jargons. Just because the word is used by one group in one context that doesn't mean it should be retired by other groups in other contexts. TA's proposal offers nothing of value.
 
"Oh no! The word 'skeptic' has been co-opted by deniers and conspiracist loons on social media. We will have to use something else!"

5 minutes later...

"Oh no! The phrase 'critical thinking' has been co-opted by deniers and conspiracist loons on social media. We will have to use something else!"

1 minute later...

"Oh no! The deniers and conspiracist loons on social media have co-opted every word in the English language. We will have to shut up!"
 
Roger Ramjets said:
"Oh no! The word 'skeptic' has been co-opted by deniers and conspiracist loons on social media. We will have to use something else!"

5 minutes later...

"Oh no! The phrase 'critical thinking' has been co-opted by deniers and conspiracist loons on social media. We will have to use something else!"

1 minute later...

"Oh no! The deniers and conspiracist loons on social media have co-opted every word i@n the English language. We will have to shut up!"
Click to expand...

No, no hacemos
 
The Atheist said:
Also "Sceptic".

It's been well and truly hijacked and is now worthless.

"I'm skeptical of climate change" means the person is a denier.

"I'm skeptical of vaccines" is double-speak for "I'm ant-vax."

"I'm skeptical of Covid....." means the person is a conspiracist loon.

The term is done and needs to be dropped entirely. I never liked it, have never identified as one, and the word always has negative connotations that are at odds with the idea of critical thinking, which is a process.
Click to expand...

use the word 'debunker' in its place.
 
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