Arguments you're tired of hearing from fringe theory supporters

[Jerrymander]

"You're just close-minded".

"We're challenging the dogma of the mainstream".

"They said Galileo was wrong too".

[Orphia Nay]

"This is a paradigm shift."

[Tomtomkent]

"Yes, but you cant explain it..."
"But assume they saw a UFO, then aliens must be real."
"You cant trust that. The establishment would have to lie about X"
"Science doesnt answer everything. Allow me to fill in the blanks."
"As a mother (or other unrelated trump card)"
"Is this person a LIAR? Because for some reason people can't be mistaken or misinformed"
"Im not racist, but I my reasons clearly are..."
"Stop asking for evidence you troll!"

[StankApe]

"Prove that it doesn't exist!"


that one makes me want to shoot people in the foot, so I can got to prison, do a little time, get in better shape, come back bigger,meaner and stronger , get out, track them down and beat them with a telephone pole...

[Stray Cat]

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

and

"when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"

are both equally as stunningly pointless as arguments and often quoted as if they are actual facts and not lines spoken by fictional characters written by people who believed in magic.

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

"[scientific theory] is just a theory"

[Flo]

"It's too complex for such an unenlightned and close-minded person like you to understand"

to which I usually answer: "I'm not responsible for the fact that you don't understand your own ******** to the point of being unable to explain it in plain English/French"

[23_Tauri]

"Science doesn't know everything" said Storm.

Yawn.

[catsmate1]

Picture of [person x] with quote attributed to them.
Bonus if the quote is a fake.

[dafydd]

''There are unknown unknowns that we don't know anything about.''

[Quietus]

"Do you believe everything government/the media/Big Pharma/etc tell you?"

[Killbot007]

"There are no transitional fossils." I don't know if young earthers count as a fringe group though.

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

"Einstein believed in God".

1) no he didn't.
2) so what? That wouldn't make him right even if it were true.

This applies to any similar appeal to authority.

Also, any time anyone refers to science as a religion. Ditto for atheism.

[Moon-Spinner]

"There wouldn't be so many books written about (fill in the blank) if it wasn't true!"

Yes, a book dealer actually said that to me a few years ago.

[Resume]

The peer-reviewed paper will be published soon.

[Hellbound]

Originally Posted by Resume

The peer-reviewed paper will be published soon.

Or "The paper was published! It's in "Uncle Al's Totally True Parapsychology Journal", Vol 1 issue 1!"

[John Albert]

"Science is also responsible for things like the atomic bomb, Chernobyl, Agent Orange, human experimentation and "Franken-foods." With a track record like that, you still trust it?"

[Max_mang]

Originally Posted by Squeegee Beckenheim

Also, any time anyone refers to science as a religion. Ditto for atheism.

Yea, those two make me nuts.
"You have faith in science."
"Atheism is a belief."
"Randi is your god."

And so on.

[Stray Cat]

Originally Posted by Max_mang

"Randi is your god."

Old dude with a white beard... can't just be coincidence.

[Beelzebuddy]

"MYTH: probably the truth. FACT: my goofy-ass, almost certainly false idea."

[Moon-Spinner]

Often used in defending the Bible - "Why would they bother writing it down if it wasn't true?"

And related - "Why would the ancients have any reason to lie/make-up stories?"

[HansMustermann]

I'd say the crackpot index is probably a good checklist for the most overused such claims, arguments and even irrelevant rants packaged together with the actual claim.

[Nay_Sayer]

"Look at this [insert relic here] is has ambiguous [insert writing,symbols or pictures here] that might be evidence of [insert ludicrous claim here]"

[Almo]

Quantum Mechanics means everything has an effect on everything else! Your mind can change physical objects at a distance because of this.

[Kilaak Kommander]

The Monty Python Black Knight "Alright, we'll call it a draw" approach.

Example:
Skeptic - "You can clearly see the word 'FRISBEE' on the bottom of the supposed alien craft."

Woo - "It's possible that the craft is marked with characters in an alien language that our minds are misinterpreting as 'FRISBEE'. Or perhaps we are seeing a reflection from a FRISBEE corporate jet that is flying below the craft but out of frame. We cannot rule out these possibilities. I have successfully countered your point. We'll call it a draw."

[John Albert]

A favorite among conspiracists:

"Finding faults with one interpretation of events strengthens the validity of all other interpretations by default."

[Spockette]

Thank you all for my daily yuks! I especially loved the Frisbee one.

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Originally Posted by Almo

Quantum Mechanics means everything has an effect on everything else! Your mind can change physical objects at a distance because of this.

You pretty much don't need anything other than the first two words of that post. Quantum mechanics explains all paranormal phenomena. Because it's quantum. Like James Bond.

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Originally Posted by John Albert

A favorite among conspiracists:

"Finding faults with one interpretation of events strengthens the validity of all other interpretations by default."

Occasionally rendered as: "finding faults with one interpretation of events strengthens the validity of my specific interpretation by default". The Theory of Evolution doesn't explain absolutely everything about life as we know it, therefore God.

[Tomtomkent]

"I have no reason to disbelieve the person who validates my world view, and I dislike you pointing out there is no evidence to support their claim. But at the same time I rabidly refuse to accept any other claims, quotes, or testemony that offers an alternate view of events and insist they are lies."

[Ron_Tomkins]

Well, mine isn't so much a catch phrase as much as it is a common argument I have whenever I argue on the topic of what being closed minded is.

On another forum, I've been arguing what a closed minded person was. There's this individual who says she will not date anyone who doesn't agree with her political beliefs. I said on a thread I made, that I find that to be closed minded, because you're deciding a priori, that you won't give any person who doesn't agree with your beliefs, even the chance of getting to know them.

So this person who disagrees with me gave me the old, stupid analogy, of the person who doesn't like avocado and thus, decides he will never eat avocados, and why that wouldn't mean that they are close minded. Which is of course a stupid analogy, because if you don't like avocado once, you know every single time you have another one, what it's going to taste like. All avocados taste pretty much the same. Not the case with this thing we call human beings. Not all Republicans, for instance, are the same. Not all Christians believe that homosexuality is a sin. Not all Capitalists believe that money is the ultimate goal. So to scrap out human individuals based on a generic Ideology is closed minded on two instances: 1) because you're closing access to a great percentage of people based on a pigeonhole mentality. 2) Because such mentality actually does not reflect the reality you live in.

So I would say the "food" analogy is one of the arguments I am most tired of hearing.

[LarianLeQuella]

All of them...

[Burning Beard]

Lately I've had quite a few people accuse me of being a paid shill that spreads disinfo on the internet. I'm not actually tired of that one though.

I get tired of the "sheeple" argument. "You're just one of the sheeple who believes what the mainstream tells you to."

[ShadowSot]

While fundamentalists aren't exactly fringe, I get very tired of being told the Bible is the only book I should need, while my critique OF the Bible is met with being told I should read X book by Y author in order to properly understand it.

[StankApe]

"uninformed" or "closed minded"


and it gets used by people on this board pushing their political agendas too, not just fringe thinkers. It's intellectually dishonest, presumptive, and it tries to insinuate some moral superiority on the part of the speaker,(when all it really means is "your opinion i different than mine thus you must be stupid")

that one has driven me to punch someone in the face in person before. but I'm an angry person

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by Stray Cat

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

That one drives me nuts!

Various quotes from Einstein relating to god that get mis-used bug me too.

Invoking Tesla as if he's some magic silver bullet also grinds my gears.

[jdc324]

There's a kind of response I sometimes get along the lines of 'why have you written about this when there's more important things you could be writing about?' So if I write about an alternative therapist, someone complains about doctors. If I write about a doctor, someone complains about Big Pharma. And so on. There's always someone who thinks I should be writing about what they think is important rather than what I'm interested in. (To be fair, some of them might have a point.)

Couple of nice replies to an example of that sort of comment here at the Quackometer in the comments section: http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2012...-academic.html

Quote:

Mark, I am sorry of my choice of blog topic offends you and that you feel that I should be talking about something else. Please supply me with a list of all bad things in the world, ranked in order of total harm and then let me know when it is possible to start criticising homeopaths and their antics.

Thankyou.

Quote:

And there is obviously scope for one to spend one’s own spare time on things that one actually finds interesting. I find the wacky world of SCAM interesting hence the time I am prepared to devote to exploring its inanities.

Why, Cybertiger, do you spend your time bitching about the criticism of SCAM when Syria is in flames? Off you go and sort that out. Then get back to us once you’re done.

Mr Pot, please say hello to Mr Kettle.

[bruto]

The coelacanth.

[Dinwar]

"Just answer the question."

Particularly when "the question" is an evasion of the complexities of the system being discussed. It's almost always nothing more than a way to avoid addressing those complexities, and is almost always an attempt to dictate the terms of the conversation.

[Ferguson]

Originally Posted by John Albert

"Science is also responsible for things like the atomic bomb, Chernobyl, Agent Orange, human experimentation and "Franken-foods." With a track record like that, you still trust it?"

I actually had a christian woman I'm friends with say almost exactly that to me a few days ago... in an argument about whether prayer worked or not. I was gobsmacked.

ETA: Atomic bomb and GMO's were two of the reasons she gave not to "trust" science. It still blows my mind. The atomic bomb and GMO's quite obviously work.