I’ve been interested in scepticism since I was a teenager. That’s about 30 years, reading up on science and understanding the boundaries between science and pseudoscience. I have always found the sceptical analysis more compelling, more logical, and profoundly more satisfying than mystical or ideological viewpoints.
More recently, I started blogging about it, talking about it and bringing people together to discuss issues of common interest. Now, though, I’m starting to wonder why I bother.
I mean, it’s ridiculous, isn’t it?
I don’t earn a penny from all this. My blogging and my talks are done for free and the meetings I organise are often run at a loss, with me picking up the tab for any overruns. From speaking to other organisers, it’s all low budget, net loss stuff there too.
Contrast this with the groups who are often the focus of our criticism. Many are in business for themselves, and some are making very tidy sums indeed. They profit primarily from people who are desperate for answers, cures and solutions. For such quests, there will always be a ready market.
Our targets are often well resourced, sometimes able to pay lawyers or launch legal actions at the slightest provocation. Us? We have to take great care, in case we upset the wrong people. We have little recourse should our targets get malicious. After all, we pose a challenge to their income streams, so they will defend themselves with venom, if the truth threatens them too much.
And then there’s the abuse. The constant, gnawing opprobrium designed to hurt. The spamming, the trolling, the dirty tricks. Sceptics I know have had calls made to their employers, FOIA requests made against their work, meetings disrupted, websites attacked. And it’s not always the targets who give us such heat, but their customers and supporters who have become invested in the hogwash peddled by them.
We’ve all lost friends over our scepticism. Nobody likes being told they might be wrong, but often there’s no easy way to say it. No matter how polite and sensitive we try to be, relationships will never be quite the same afterwards. You don’t win friends by bursting their precious balloons.
And there’s the research, the poring over websites to find the flaws, the searching through studies to get more definitive answers, trying to be as correct and as well informed as possible. And what for? To engage in pointless conversations with people who could never be convinced anyway? Frequently, it feels more like work than fun. Often, it feels like wading through treacle.
Then there’s the endless nature of it all. Despite decades of thorough debunking, creationism and homeopathy are still going strong; as is global warming denial. The only things we can reasonably expect are new members to this ghastly choir: such as the gluten-free craze and anti-chemical fad. No matter how well you do on day 1, you’ll be having exactly the same arguments on day 2, and indeed, day 10,000.
What do we get from it? Why do we do it? It’s not for the money, for sure. Neither is it because arguments with opponents leave us with a warm, happy feeling. Many of us suffer from depression and anxiety, so it’s not as if it’s even that great for our mental health. For good reason, a lot of people have moved on, as over time, it can just get too much.
Perhaps we do it because we are passionately interested in the raw truth and concerned about people being taken for a ride. More so, we worry, that if it were not for people like us, nobody would be holding up a mirror to these people; exposing the quacks, ideologues and charlatans for the damage they cause. Without active scepticism, I often wonder if it’s the destiny of this culture to be eventually swallowed by a tsunami of ideological bullshit.
I’m not sure what I am looking for from writing about this. Maybe a better understanding perhaps, or at least an acknowledgement that this lonely, tiring work is in some way worth the effort.
Or maybe I just need a hug. Hugs are nice.
You aren’t doing it right. Contact Big Pharma and become a shill.
More seriously, if you look at how people’s minds change, it’s by slow, steady, patient and courteous discourse, not ranting or trolling, which just makes then double down. There may be epiphanies, but we aren’t in the business of damascene conversions; we don’t call people to Dawkins the way born-again christians are called to Jesus.
In other words, you have been doing it right.
But our successes are invisible. We never know who quietly decides to vaccinate their child because of something we posted five years ago, who chooses a physiotherapist instead of a chiropractor, who feels safer in their sexuality and hangs on in there until they can move.
And we can burn out. Of course we can. We can do too much, too often, for too long, for not enough acknowledgement. And because you are not a troll, the fights can wear you down.
It’s ok. It’s ok to say “I’ve served my time and done my bit; the ripples from my pebbles are still spreading, but I am going to sit on this beach and rediscover some peace and some joy”. And maybe someone will pick up where you leave off, and maybe they won’t. And that’s ok too.
Hugs are good. All the hugs. ((Hugs)).
*hug*
*hug*
Hugs
The victories are worth it, however. Some of us finally appear to have had some influence on the daft health-related policies of a certain political party. And even if people don’t grasp the fine details of the science, the fact that we are out there loudly banging a drum is leading some people to at least think twice before surrendering to the embrace of the Quacks.
At QED, I’ll buy you a pint. I’m Scottish, we don’t do hugs….
Seriously, being reasonable, rational and, yes, sceptical is not always the path of least resistance. But, as the previous commentator said, you never know the minds that have been changed because of your actions.
I took on the role in Edinburgh Skeptics not because I wanted to change minds but simply so that we at least could be visible and if that led to one teenager being comfortable rejecting their parents religious upbringing or one adult finding a community they can be comfortable in or a child getting proper medical treatment then it is worth it.
I was lucky and privileged in my upbringing – I had parents who encouraged me to think – not everyone either has that or has the ability to realise that.
It takes all sorts to make a world. Many wish to destroy it, most are indifferent to it but some want to improve it and this should always be encouraged. We bring whatever skills and drive we have, no matter how small or indifferent it may seem, you are on the positive side of the equation.
There’s no ultimate reward, no heaven, no judgement in doing what we do but there is the knowledge that you’ve done something that helps others and for us there is nothing better.
*Hugs! Last week I wrote a thing, not a sceptic thing, another thing that p&*^ed many people off. This time though I became deliciously aware that I’m finally getting the hang of not taking (incredibly) negative feedback personally – and better – I’m seeing it as a win. Not a troll flavoured win, but a more challenge flavoured win. Those who aren’t invested in vitriol, fighting for the sake of fight (or fear of being ‘wrong’) – they’re just quieter, that’s all. Knowing that there a like minded people out there is enormously comforting as no doubt you have found. Remembering that is key to sanity and defence against burn out. So remember it, as best you can.
Also, know that today you have taught me that I’ve been mentally misspelling the word ‘pour’ !!! I learned that while PORING over your piece.
Another win, right??!!
S.
Thanks so much Sal.