Facebook [Bad] Memories

This memory from 2013 popped up on my Facebook timeline, and I thought it was worth sharing:

I have had it up to here (motioning to just below my chin) with those, generally championing leftist positions, who think that any disagreement comes from ignorance and/or malevolence. I recently shared an article about climate change that made the argument that mitigation costs would primarily be born by the poor as they were prevented from having the access to energy that the wealthy have already acquired. Admittedly, the underlying source article was skeptical (justifiably, in my view) of the science as well. A relative of mine, who was only "friended" because he is a relative, objected to the article and then suggested that a response by another friend was "racist."

I noticed that this relative, who I will call "Joe," had posted a number of times to his wall since his responses and thought I would take a look. I was hardly surprised to find that he was trashing me, although not by name, as not knowing the scientific method "if it bit [me] in the ass" and complaining about having to defend science to ignorant "backwater" types.

Joe seems to live in a perpetual red mist, suggesting that the politicians he doesn't like be made into food, that he would only find use for an "assault weapon" on 7th Day Adventist trespassers and climate change deniers, and that economists should be made into Soylent Green. On his wall he urges his friends to support his being "pissed off" at people like me who don't understand or know anything about the scientific method.

Well, the funny thing is that, whether I understand it or not, I'm very interested in the scientific method (primarily as expounded by Karl Popper) and actually believe that it is the only thing we have to cling to. No God, no absolute morality, no nothing but trial and error to figure out what works. The one thing that I don't believe is that it involves "consensus," which is a political, rather than scientific term. It does involve "skepticism," of which Joe seems to have little.

Joe has been "unfriended," and I hope I don't hear from him again.

To this point, thankfully, I haven't heard from him.