The Pseudoskeptic Mind Revisited
This morning on Cryptomundo (www.cryptomundo.com) I learned that one of the scientific community’s staunchest opponents of the Homo Floriensis fossils, Prof. Teuku Jacob has passed away in
Java, Indonesia. While anyone’s passing is sad news on its own, Jacob’s conduct in the Floriensis debate is also a sad discourse on one of the more sinister traits of pseudoskepticism.
In one of my previous blogs I listed ten characteristics commonly encountered in pseudoskeptics. There are of course considerably more than ten, and I picked what I felt were the most common traits one might see when dealing with these people. Prof. Jacob’s methodology reflects another trait that I see becoming more widespread among the pseudoskeptic community in dealing with what it sees as “pseudoscience”: the willingness to actively suppress evidence and actively discourage investigation into a particular subject. It is also the trait that is probably the most indicative of the pseudoskeptics’ true motives.
