Ok, I'm uncertain about science being manipulated since I haven't any firsthand evidence of it.
Doesn't your belief in a manipulated mainstream in fact derive
entirely from claims to that effect made by conspiracy theorists? How many times have you admitted not having done any research yourself and simply believed what someone else told you, putting faith in him solely because he was not of the mainstream?
So I still maintain that skeptics may have a facade of certainty that in reality is covering uncertainty about the facts.
No, mainstream science wears its uncertainly on its sleeve. Notwithstanding claims to have investigated to the best of its ability, science is predicated on the fundamental tenet that all its conclusions must be considered forever tentative. This is why scientists are still employed. They're busy revising theories to account for new evidence.
The skeptic believes sincerely on a conscious level that he or she is certain because mainstream science has confirmed the facts.
No. This is in fact the straw man you've erected in place of the skeptic.
The skeptic does not believe that mainstream science has confirmed the facts to any absolute or infallible sense, but only to the extent that it can be measured and tested using our available understanding and methods. The methods are designed to catch as many errors as possible. Hence were error is suspected, there must be
specific grounds for suspicion, not just general distrust.
In contrast, the conspiracy theorist disbelieves some proposition for no good reason, other than that it's from the mainstream and they don't like the mainstream. The inductive leap in the hypothetico-deductive process is exactly the gap the conspiracy theorists hope to drive their wedge in. However, they deny that mainstream science acknowledges the presence of that inductive gap.
The skeptic has in some ways outsourced his or her critical thinking to external experts that are trusted blindly.
Whereas conspiracy theorists exhibit no critical thinking whatsoever, nor accept it from others. Conspiracism is just wanton speculation trying to call itself open-mindedness.
