89 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
89 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: THE VARIETIES OF DEBUNKERITIS FILE: UFO3256
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THE VARIETIES OF DEBUNKERITIS: A PARTIAL LIST
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Compiled by Jerome Clark, December 1992.
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Reprinted with permission on ParaNet Information Services
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DEBUNKERITIS: The inability of some leading self-described
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"skeptics" to bring rational discourse to the debate on UFOs and
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other anomalous claims.
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McCarthy's disease: An irresistible compulsion to intimate that
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ufologists may be harming America by doing things that America's
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enemies also seek to accomplish, such as make the extraordinarily
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irresponsible claim that "our government cannot be trusted" and
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that it sometimes "lies" and "falsifies," just as the Soviet
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Union has charged. Further symptoms call for the sufferer to
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express his outrage "as a patriotic citizen" and to speak of Nazi
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Party meetings in discussions of meetings of ufologists, as if to
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imply the two were somehow comparable. The sufferer may also
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threaten to sue when someone reveals that sufferer has expressed
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such sentiments; see bully's disease below.
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Snooper's disease: A helpless inability to resist (1)
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investigating the personal lives of those with whom the sufferer
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disagrees; or (2) encouraging others to do so; or (3) bringing
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personal matters otherwise deemed irrelevant into debates on
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issues related to UFOs or like phenomena.
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Apocalyptist's disease: The strange view that popular interest
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in anomalies and the paranormal threatens not only science, which
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most would regard as hugely powerful entity in any modern society
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which depends on sophisticated technology for its economic
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survival, but also the continued existence of civilization and
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democracy. Further symptom: the belief that those who hold
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unconventional views comprise such a clear and present danger
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that hundreds of thousands of dollars must be raised as rapidly
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as possible to construct a Taj Mahal of debunkeritis near
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Buffalo, New York.
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Party-Line disease: Utter failure to understand that "scientific
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investigation of claims of the paranormal" - or anything else -
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requires vigorous internal debate, criticism, and policing, not
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just the bashing of persons who perversely hold views one does
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not like; nor does it require emotional and desperate defenses of
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allies even in the face of brazen, occasionally even criminal,
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misconduct. Within the UFO-debunking subcult, for example,
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sufferers compete to see who can express more absolute agreement
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than the next with the dictates of the subcult's leader, even (or
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particularly) when he is exhibiting symptoms of McCarthy's
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disease, snooper's disease, or other afflictions. A related
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symptom: Sometimes, when the dictate in question is so
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outrageous that it cannot be specifically defended, either the
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sufferer's allies will stonewall rather than dissent or they will
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attack, typically without mentioning the dictate at issue, the
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individual who has complained about it; see, for example,
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Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1987, p. 334.
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Crackpot's disease: Inability to write without significant,
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sometimes total, recourse to bold or enhanced type and italics,
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underlined, or capitalized words, or - frequently - combinations
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thereof in the same phrase or sentence.
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Bully's disease: Tendency to threaten those with whom one
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disagrees with legal suits when all else fails to silence them.
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One prominent debunkeritis sufferer hurls or hints at such
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threats so often that the total may be impossible to calculate.
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Demonologist's disease: The conviction that those who criticize
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an organization with which you are associated are "evil." This
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last word is not a paraphrase. It is an exact quote from a
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pronouncement of a leading debunkeritis sufferer.
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Stroker's disease: The pathetic need to belong to an
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organization whose purpose is to continually assure its members,
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associates, and subscribers of how rational they are.
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END
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