DominicBunnell
New
I by and large agree (for the most part) with many of your criticisms here and in the other thread you started recently about the connection or lack of between M1 and M2.
But I'd like to make what I think is a relevant point:
Skeptiko is a really cool podcast, (and maybe you agree (?)) . . . And one of the reasons, IMO, that it's good is because Alex is the host. I don't really want hushed tones and elevator-style muzak, and NPR type stuff . . . I want what I'd do, which is, in a quite a few ways, what Alex does. I want someone who at least starts somewhat as a layman. When I first started coming to understand what the current scientific paradigm was all about, I was majoring in anthropology, with an emphasis on cultural anthropology . . . (which was a mistake; I should've been smarter than to actually go to college, for one, and for two, I should've majored in, say, literature). I was floored by how scientifically predictable they thought culture and humans were . . . and that they actually thought, if we made it far enough with science, we'd be able to explain, well - I hesitate to say everything, but that's kind of what I think they - my professors and fellow students - thought. Anyway, I railed against the stuff; I wanted to lash out in anyway possible . . . I mean, mainly on intellectual grounds . . . I thought they were - sorry to use the word - kind of stupid, intellectually crude, black-and-white type thinkers. (And, of course, they weren't really stupid, but it's like they had an enormous blind spot or were, well, indoctrinated). So, I was furious, and sometimes I'll still have that feeling when I think back on college . . . God only knows what I would've thought/said had I been aware of parapsychology; my nonmaterialist views at the time were strictly shaped by hallucinogens and Art . . . (Art because I believe for it to really happen, the person doing it has to get out of the way, so to speak, and allow something else, something greater, to take over . . . and that that thing that does take over will never, ever be accounted for). Anyway, this is all just to say, Alex isn't an impartial NPR host or a college philosophy professor; he's on a personal journey. He's coming from where I'm coming from. And it's this, I think, that's possibly at the root of your frustration.
Reece, you make some good points here. I totally agree that Skeptiko is a great show. Alex has exposed a lot of ignorance, arrogance, closed-mindedness and dogmatism among skeptics, atheists and materialists on these matters. And yeah, it could be that you need someone like Alex who can be really aggressive and angry to get things done. Still, that doesn't mean we should just remain silent as Alex goes off on yet another of his bizarre rants blaming materialism for the Iraq War, capitalist consumerism, political apathy, technology worship, or whatever. It's precisely because I like Skeptiko that it annoys me so much to hear this kind of thing.