This guy isn’t a skeptic though, he’s a true believer. It’s just that his beliefs happen to be the opposite of established consensus, instead of being in line w

This guy isn’t a skeptic though, he’s a true believer. It’s just that his beliefs happen to be the opposite of established consensus, instead of being in line with it. That’s especially dumb, because if you’re going to blindly believe things you might as well blindly go with the flow, you’ll be wrong sometimes but right more often. Actual skepticism requires a lot of intellectual effort and honesty. An actual skeptic on the moon landing/holocaust/global warming/Loch Ness monster/whatever would start from a position of genuine skepticism and curiosity, wedded neither to one side nor the other, and then carefully line up all the evidence on one side versus the other. That’s a valuable service; we don’t all have time to be genuinely skeptical about everything so it’s good to know there’s genuine skeptics out there doing the hard work for us; once in a while they’ll discover that the evidence for some popular belief actually isn’t as overwhelming as everyone believes, and that’s incredibly valuable. Genuine skeptics should be cherished and nurtured, but idiots who blindly take up contrary positions because they align with their worldview are of no value to anyone.