John Edward in South Africa 2011

[st0nes]

Yes, we should feel compassion for them. We're not all "blessed" (I use the word very loosly) with logic and rational thought processes, and many people live on emotion instead, which causes all sorts of troubles and then their adversary dies (be it mom, dad, kid or aunty), which leaves them will all sorts of emotions to deal with and no way to lay it to rest. Charlatans like this bastard knows this, and he knowingly exploits these people in the worst possible way, I could happily lynch him and his ilk personally after a painful period of constant torture.

A lot of people say "don't blame the victim," but most people who are taken in by this crap have brought their victimhood upon themselves by being too lazy to learn critical thinking, or logic, or anything about science, or the basic rules of common sense.  I've run out of sympathy for them.  There's a saying that "you can't con an honest man," which I take to be literally true.

[BoogieMonster]

Unconscious Incompetence

The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognise their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn

It's entirely possible to live your entire life (and a lot of people do) without ever realising there could possibly be anything deficient with your own reasoning capability, even though it may be dismal. It's one of those "you won't know it until you know it" things. I'm sure there are many things that I could be doing better, or am entirely ignorant of without even knowing there's something to be ignorant about. If the deficit is not made clear to me in unambiguous terms by someone who DOES know, or a pure fluke of reading, I'll never be the wiser.

It helps to read a lot and research as I am one to do. But a lot of people just don't spend their lives absorbing lots and lots of weird facts and bits about the world, so the chances of them running into the information by chance is greatly reduced.

I'm not saying this is great, nor am I saying someone shouldn't point at them and go "oy! Learn to reason!". But I mean that's kinda insulting, "Like what? I can't reason?! I'm WRONG about my whole worldview!? Screw YOU!".... the very problem of not appreciating objective reason can defeat a chance of actually obtaining an appreciation for it.

[Superman]

This is exactly why forums such as these are so important
Here you can test your knowledge and see if what you believe is as concrete as you think it is. You should not be too sensitive if someone calls you out!
Insult me, call me the worst thing that you want and I will only get sronger, "Thank for helping me out. Anything else that you would like to get off your chest. Please dont hold out."