I don't agree (quite) with everything in this Tweetstorm, but I do agree with most of it, and she makes several good points. 1/https://twitter.com/tkingdot/status/1026889702543122433 …
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Now here's a key point: Belief is identity. To be honest, I think skeptics have always known that for religion; so it's strange that we often don't realize that it applies to a lot of other irrational beliefs. 6/https://twitter.com/tkingdot/status/1026895507833147392 …
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So belief in quackery like chronic Lyme disease is identity. "Lose the belief, lose the identity" is a powerful observation about why CLD patients resist disconfirming science and information about their diagnosis. It also applies to antivaxers. 7/https://twitter.com/tkingdot/status/1026896885217419265 …
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The same is true about a lot of other quackery and fake diagnoses: Adrenal fatigue, for instance. Lose the belief, lose the identity. More importantly, lose the belief, lose the support structure one's built up around that identity. 8/
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Now here's one area where I disagree. She thinks reporting has gotten worse. I don't. At least in some areas, it's gotten markedly better. 9/https://twitter.com/tkingdot/status/1026898781416112128 …
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Antivax, for instance. Reporting on vaccine issues and the claim that vaccines cause autism has gotten arguably much better. Ten years ago, any story about vaccines included an antivaxer for "balance." That is much less frequent now, almost nonexistent. 10/
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It's also true that the discovery of how many "leaders" in the male-dominated skeptic movement were sexual harassers or just misogynistic has hurt the movement, particularly among women. 11/https://twitter.com/tkingdot/status/1026891453635723265 …
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And don't even get me started on how many skeptics like "thinkers" like Jordan Peterson...ugh. 12/
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It's important to remember, though, that in the age of Trump, more than ever beliefs appear to be tied to identity, which is why gaining traction as skeptics and trying to fight bullshit have become so much harder. 13/13https://twitter.com/tkingdot/status/1026894193921347587 …
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