Ways to spot a woo

[Lord T Hawkeye]

This is a journal entry I did out of boredom.  Please do add if you have other good tips.

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I often get accused of acting like I know everything.  Well this probably goes without saying but I don't.  If I did, I wouldn't bother getting up in the morning.  What I do have is a knack for knowing when I'm talking to someone who knows more about a given subject than I do, when I'm talking to someone who's trying to pretend he knows more about a given subject than I do, and with someone who's just plain ignorant as mud.

How do you tell?  Well, here's a few tricks I use.


First: Eliminate the herd instinct
Groups are powerful things, they can make even the most reasonable people accept the most ludicrous ideas.  So when presented with a claim that it seems everyone believes, act like this is the first time you've ever heard it and the person saying it is the only one who believes it.  Does it still make sense?  Does it still sound reasonable?  Try it with one that I debated recently: Good old socialized healthcare.

Let's say you live in a world where socialized healthcare never existed.  If you need to see the doctor, you go in, get checked up, pay a fee and move along.  Now let's say someone came along and said "I have an idea to do things better.  Instead everyone paying for their own care according to their needs, we're going to pool our money and people can dip into the pool for whatever they need."

Sound like a good idea so far?  Do you have any worries about people abusing it or maybe even the guy running it abusing it?

Oh yes, I forgot something!  In the fine print, it also states that you don't actually have a choice here.  Everyone is going to be forced to pay into the pool and those who don't will be taken away at gun point and locked up.

Now does it sound reasonable?  I don't know about you but this sounds more like a mafia protection racket to me.

Don't just accept things because everyone else does!  Millions of people CAN all be wrong and very frequently throughout history HAVE been wrong.  If you had never heard of religion before, what would you think of someone who said that the world was created in one week 6000 years ago and all the ills of the world can be blamed because two people with no concept of good and evil ate an apple they were told not to?  Be honest with yourself, you'd think them mad wouldn't you?


Second: Woos have no true faith
If someone told you that the the world sits atop a giant turtle shell, what would your reaction be?  Would that offend you?  Would you see that as an attack on your beliefs?  Would you hurl insults in a rage?  I hope not.  I really hope you'd laugh at him and/or demand to know where he got such an idea.  That's how a proper skeptic and free thinker reacts to any claim that contradicts what he believes.  Whether it's new information or a confirmation of what you already believe, either way you're wiser for it.

Woos and collectivists don't think this way.  With collectivism, it's status quo at all costs even if you must deny reality itself.  It's just like what James Randi once said, they don't just want it to be true, they need it to be true and when you question it, you're threatening them.

In short, when you question an idea and are met with hostility and accusations about how evil you are for daring to question, you know you're getting hot!

"I don't think the death penalty helps society" - "You want criminals to run free and hurt others you monster!"

"I think healthcare does more harm than good" - "You want the sick to die you evil demon!"

"I believe the welfare state has made more poor people than it has saved" - "You don't care about the poor you unfeeling wretch!"

Yes, I've had all these accusations thrown at me and much more.  Can you see how ridiculous they are?  Anyone who truly had faith in their belief would never react this way.  What does that say about the real weight of their belief that it is so easily shaken to the point that it drives them to take the offensive?

Plus, can you see how it shows their true priorities?  If you truly and honestly care about a cause, you would welcome new ideas to potentially serve that cause better.  Status quo at all costs is selfish and shows that you care more about being right than doing what's right.


Third: Recognize flawed arguments and sloppy thinking
Nobody who believes something based on evidence ever has to resort to work around arguments to back their claim just like someone telling the truth answers straight shot and someone who's lying will stall and change the subject.

To recognize flawed arguments, ask yourself how it would sound if you tried to use it to contradict a self evident truth.

Appeal to popularity: Every other developed country in the world uses socialized healthcare so we should too!
"Every other country in the world says 2+2=5 therefore we should too!"

See?  Now you see how ludicrous that argument really is?  Truth is not democratic.  It also doesn't care who you are, what your morals are or what you think it ought to be.  If Hitler says 2+2=4, then Hitler is right.  If you think anyone who thinks 2+2=4 is evil, well...2+2 still =4.  If you think 2+2 ought to be 5, it's still 4.

Also, take an argument and apply it to something similar and see if it still makes sense.

What if we used the ideas behind healthcare and used it on another essential service, let's say food.  But if that happened, you wouldn't care what it costs because you're not paying for it.  Why buy cheap fish when you can buy the more expensive ones?  Why buy cheap cuts of meat when you can go for the prime ones?  Why look for sales?  Why shop around?  Why use coupons?  Your insurance company/government is paying for it right?

Are you starting to see how this could get VERY expensive in a big hurry?  You don't have to just imagine it either.  The Soviets ran their grocceries this way and with the exact result I described.  High prices, constant shortages and long lineups.  Sound familiar?

An argument based on truth can apply to similar things and still fit.  Fallacious arguments make stuff up as they go along.

Well, that's my lesson for the day.  Feel free to ask any questions you wish.  Until next time, keep your mind free and uncluttered and you shall find heaven within it.

So sayeth the Lord Hawkeye.