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From: kdo@edsel (Ken Olum)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.misc
Subject: Re: Strange results in Nature article (fallout...)
Message-ID: <1230@edsel>
Date: 2 Aug 88 01:59:17 GMT
References: <1911@aecom.YU.EDU> <6445@megaron.arizona.edu> <492@metapsy.UUCP> <668@ns.UUCP> <495@metapsy.UUCP>
Reply-To: kdo@lucid.com
Organization: Lucid, Inc., Menlo Park, CA
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In article <495@metapsy.UUCP> sarge@metapsy.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode) writes:
>The words "scare" seems correct.  Debunkers, like bigots, seem to me
>to play on our xenophobia, our dislike of new and strange
>world-views, in much the same way as McCarthyites played on our fear
>of Communism.

Let me try this again.  What exactly do you claim that debunkers are
doing?  Randi hears of some claim of paranormal stuff.  He goes and
investigates, and it turns out to be bunk.  The proponent is fooling
himself, or the statistics are bad, or the guy is just a liar.  Now,
hasn't Randi done us all a service?  He's saved us from getting all
excited about this new world-view when really there's no support for
it.

How do debunkers "play on xenophobia"?

				Ken Olum