“they seem to duck many of the bigger scientific controversies and public policy questions that dominate the discourse today (I’ll give you exactly one guess which one I’m alluding to).”
This is a very clever form of words to provoke the reader’s confirmation bias into thinking you agree with them that [X which they think is what sceptics should not be ducking is what you were thinking]. Well done indeed.
In the spirit of being the asshole in the room, please can you stop using footnotes so much in your posts? They make reading an absolute nightmare because I have to either 1) scroll down to the footnotes, then try to find my way back to where I was; or 2) skip them, read them at the end of the post, and try to remember what the context was for each one.
I recognise that on PC you can hover to see the footnote, but you don't get this functionality on the email (perhaps I'm the weird one for only reading substacks through email - but its supposed to be a newsletter site...)
Ha, sorry Ben. I wish there was a better way to do them - unfortunately I quite like adding footnotes as it means I can keep the main argument fairly clean and straightforward, while still. going off on tangents and making stupid jokes. Consider them non-essential DVD extras!
I like footnotes (just to be the asshole in the room) ( or, because I'm not American, the arsehole).
Skeptics got a lot right but because we're only human, not everything, and some personalities did the 'movement' no favours. A loss of venues and Covid did physical coherence no favours either.
If I may "well, actually" this (note how to play the asshole-in-the-room you are now required to at least signal your awareness of the trope), it actually breaks the flow of your argument anyway. I read your footnotes and get just as distacted by them as if they were in the main body of the text - maybe even moreso. Sadly you can't really have it both ways. You should either embrace a slightly rambly style with silly tangents or write cleaner arguments and save the jokey asides for Twitter.
“they seem to duck many of the bigger scientific controversies and public policy questions that dominate the discourse today (I’ll give you exactly one guess which one I’m alluding to).”
This is a very clever form of words to provoke the reader’s confirmation bias into thinking you agree with them that [X which they think is what sceptics should not be ducking is what you were thinking]. Well done indeed.
In the spirit of being the asshole in the room, please can you stop using footnotes so much in your posts? They make reading an absolute nightmare because I have to either 1) scroll down to the footnotes, then try to find my way back to where I was; or 2) skip them, read them at the end of the post, and try to remember what the context was for each one.
I recognise that on PC you can hover to see the footnote, but you don't get this functionality on the email (perhaps I'm the weird one for only reading substacks through email - but its supposed to be a newsletter site...)
Ha, sorry Ben. I wish there was a better way to do them - unfortunately I quite like adding footnotes as it means I can keep the main argument fairly clean and straightforward, while still. going off on tangents and making stupid jokes. Consider them non-essential DVD extras!
I like footnotes (just to be the asshole in the room) ( or, because I'm not American, the arsehole).
Skeptics got a lot right but because we're only human, not everything, and some personalities did the 'movement' no favours. A loss of venues and Covid did physical coherence no favours either.
But yes, we should revive the good aspects.
If I may "well, actually" this (note how to play the asshole-in-the-room you are now required to at least signal your awareness of the trope), it actually breaks the flow of your argument anyway. I read your footnotes and get just as distacted by them as if they were in the main body of the text - maybe even moreso. Sadly you can't really have it both ways. You should either embrace a slightly rambly style with silly tangents or write cleaner arguments and save the jokey asides for Twitter.
I save them til the end, like pudding
Fair enough!
I recommended James to 2 family groups today, attempting to entice them with the description 'best footnotes since Pratchett'.
That is very kind of you to say!
Also, suspicion about or fear of new things/change is very common in old people. Are we all turning into our grandmas?
We have an aging population...