Responsibilities for Correcting Woo

[moonsail]

If someone is propagating woo, e.g. "cell phones start fires at gas stations!", to people you regularly associate with, what sort of responsibility do you, as a rational human being, have

Comments

[7ghent]

I have a propensity to correct woo whenever and wherever I see it. However, the long term effect has been off-putting to people who are sensitive and possess poor critical-thinking skills. I was much more likely to hold my tongue when I was younger and more concerned with people liking me. It's kind of a mixed bag. Some people think I'm a dick, but pretty much anyone who holds that opinion because I've been outspoken in correcting their misconceptions isn't generally someone whose company I really enjoy

[7ghent]

The issue is less persuading the person spouting nonsense so much as to let other people reading or hearing them know that what is being stated is untrue.

[tiwonge]

As a math teacher, I often find myself in the position of having to correct mistakes made by my students.

So I just attribute my tendency to correct other errors as a teacher's habit.

[moonsail]

My short-term goals are definitely aimed at other listeners. It's important to let people know there are dissenting opinions, especially dissenting evidence-based opinions.

I don't think an odd occurance of someone dissenting will change minds, but, like mercury, it's an accumulation over time that will get you.

As an anecdote, I didn't become an atheist by having a prayer nt answered or from being "mad at god", but from discovering over time that all of the pillars of belief in xianity were extremely precarious and just plain wrong, and that no other religion had any better arguments.

I think fighting woo is the same. An accumulation of knowledge will overcome wanting to believe something.