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March 29, 2011 - Skeptoid
19:32
Skeptoid #251: Listener Feedback: Nobody Ever Posts Twice

Skeptoid answers more listener feedback. Recorded live at the 250th Episode party. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Time Text
Challenging Electromagnetic Sensitivity Beliefs 00:09:57
The phenomenon of people who believe they are sensitive to electromagnetic radiation is a fascinating one.
Testing has easily proven their belief to be false, but that only makes them double down on their preferred self-diagnosis.
Today, we're going to engage with one such believer via email, as well as a few other people who want to challenge certain Skeptoid episodes.
Best today on Skeptoid.
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You're listening to Skeptoid.
I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.
Listener feedback.
Nobody ever posts twice.
Once again, we're diving into the mailbag to see what kind of feedback we're receiving from my sometimes adoring fans.
We are for the first time recording a Skeptoid episode in front of a live audience.
We're at the University of California, Irvine at the Skeptoid 250th episode party.
People often ask me if these emails and comments are actually real or if I just make them up.
Certainly real people couldn't be as far out as some of these.
I assure you they are, in fact, all real people.
And just to prove it, we've invited some of the commenters here to the party to join us tonight and to offer their feedback in person.
So let's get started with an email from PC in London, who wrote in reference to the episode on people who believe themselves to be electromagnetic hypersensitive.
I have been ES for 10 years and I am not an electrophobe.
I will use a mobile, I will watch a TV, etc.
I did not run when I see a mobile phone mask or a person approaching me with a phone.
However, it's usually at times when I am quite settled minding my own business when that familiar stinging sensation, mild stabbing pain in my head, alerts me to the fact that a person, say, two to ten meters away is using a phone, usually in a queue inside of a building.
That was a hell of a sentence.
And in all caps, too.
I bet you can't write an even longer one.
You can drive me down the M25 blindfolded and I will tell you where the mobile masks are.
I have done this in other countries and converted many a skeptic.
Turn your attention away from hounding the sick here and look at the up-and-coming research on the effects of EMFs on the general population.
Never mind ES persons.
What is the psychology behind those that would have us branded mad and deluded?
Why, what I want is your mental problem.
Well, color me impressed.
You do seem to be multi-talented.
You can detect mobile phone antennas.
You can press caps lock.
You can write a sentence of magnificent dimensions, but you're unable to diagnose my mental problem.
I thought maybe you'd be able to tune into it with your radio powers.
I guess not.
Perhaps the fillings in your teeth need adjustment.
You suggest that I redirect my attention away from hounding the sick.
I'm not sure Skeptoid could survive such a drastic change of format.
And instead focus on the psychology of those who brand you as mad.
I thank you for this compelling episode suggestion.
However, as Skeptoid is only about a 10-minute show, I fear we wouldn't be able to cover a significant enough percentage of those people for the episode to be statistically significant.
Perhaps if you could group those who brand you mad into categories, perhaps sort them by nationality, age, and other demographic factors, we could reduce it to a manageable number.
Dave from Earth wrote in to complain that I featured Dr. Richard Schultz as a wacko of the week in the Skeptoid newsletter.
Dr. Schultz is one of these guys who purchased an unaccredited online degree that required no coursework or curricula and now sells natural and herbal supplements, detoxification products, and books and DVDs.
One of his little catchphrases is, unless maintaining chronic diseases with medical doctors, drugs, and surgeries, and spending your nest egg to do it sounds like fun, I have an alternative.
It's called health.
I do not care for snake oil salesmen.
That's a good start.
Let's see how long you can keep it up.
But what is clearly an ignorance on your part to discount yet another person's experience in a field that takes only the ability to read from a recipe list passed down from generations all over the world?
Wow, 2.6 seconds.
Not bad.
Better than most.
Do the math, dude.
1.3 billion people in China, all are relatively healthy by proportion to the entire population, yet no Western medicine practiced there?
Gee, Brian, how about a reply or article on the bogus medicinal herb practice in that country?
There actually is a lot of interesting stuff to be learned from China's example.
According to data published by the China Health and Nutrition Survey, in recent decades, many Chinese have now had access to medical care for the first time.
And as a result, they're living longer.
And combined with their policy of having fewer children, the population is aging rapidly.
They've begun having access to more food choices.
And so they're also getting fatter.
This is what corrupt Western influence has done to China.
It's made them old and fat.
If a return to their traditional ways makes them young and thin, where do I sign up?
You get one more chance, Lol, or a dick you'll always be.
Was that my chance?
Did I fail?
Damn, I guess that as a dick, I better go sit with Dick Schultz.
Here's an anonymous comment received in response to my episode on vaccine ingredients, in which we explained why the ingredients most often trumpeted as toxic poisons are used and what they do.
So you think that because those toxins are used in other products, that makes them safe?
Yes, exactly.
Excellent listening comprehension.
Can I borrow your brain?
Are you kidding?
Aren't you curious why our health in this country is so bad?
Why cancer is so prevalent?
Rates are so high, in fact, that we are told that we will get cancer.
And it's just a matter of when and how.
You're also told that you should donate all your money to Skeptoid.
There is no amount of those poisons in the vaccines that is safe.
And combine it with what comes in contact lens solution, etc.
And you have a toxic wasteland.
Get the facts, Brian, and really get educated.
A few more emails from you should complete my education.
I always wanted to have omniscient insight into everything that I know nothing about.
Lynn from Tennessee wrote in about my episode on the appearance of so-called spirit orbs in photographs.
I have a collection of orb photos taken with an Olympus 7.1 megapixel digital camera.
Many of the orbs have distinct faces when zoomed in.
Some you don't have to zoom in.
I have one taken in an old barn that is clearly a middle-aged man grinning and you can even see his teeth.
I have another with very prominent nose that looks Indian or African American and also very mean.
I have blue orbs that look like classic demons or devils with tiny horns protruding.
All orbs are definitely not explained away by bugs and dust.
Many of my orbs were photographed in 20 degree temperature with no precipitation or bugs anywhere in sight.
And I usually take a second photo afterward, and the orb is always gone.
You skeptics need to stop being so narrow-minded.
The spiritual realm is all around us, and I believe these are spirits of the Nephilim or familiar spirits, not humans, because the Bible is clear in Hebrew chapter 927 or chapter 9, verse 27, that humans go to one of two places after death.
Anything that contradicts God is of the adversary, Satan.
And I'm sure I'll be scoffed at and ridiculed for following the truth.
You called that one right.
The Best Medicine Is Skepticism 00:09:31
Are you ready?
No, I'll be nice.
I respect that you took so much time to write.
It's a lot of time.
In fact, so compelling was your anecdote about seeing ordered details in flash reflections that I took it to heart and began searching for Bible codes in your email.
I trust you won't be offended by that.
Here is what I found, but I warn you, it's somewhat shocking.
Lynn, I am an orb.
I follow you around in pursuit of your soul.
I have teeth and horns and I'm mean looking.
But I take issue with your description of my nose as very prominent and that I look Indian or African American.
I'm Dutch-Irish.
That was indeed pretty darn shocking.
Hey, everyone.
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This is a real bucket list adventure you don't want to miss.
But cabins are selling fast, and this ship does always sell out.
Act now, or you'll miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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Hope to see you on board at skeptoid.com/slash adventures.
Jim in Missouri saw right through one of the facts that the government pays me to cover up, as I did in my episode on fluoridation.
One of the main things that fluoride does is cause people to be lethargic.
Straight from my EPA chemical book.
That's so why there are so many slow Americans that believe anything their government feeds them.
Well, it got you to believe what you read in your government chemical book.
It also affected your voice to some degree, I think.
Big John from the American Deep South was a bit put off by the instruction on the skeptoid.com comment form that says, Remember, you should always read with skepticism the comments of anyone too lame to put their real name and city.
He wrote, What a vocus twat you are, Brian.
If I declared myself with my real name and location, then I would very likely be deprived of my property and perhaps my life.
No, this is actually true.
Skeptoid works very closely with FEMA to identify and tag American citizens so they can be collected for orderly disposal in the disintegration camps.
Skeptoid.com's comment forms are an integral part of this process.
Notice that nobody ever posts a second time.
But that would never bother you a bit, would it?
Since it would not affect you.
You haven't opened your mind sufficiently to include people who may not be safe when they declare their true thoughts in a closed-minded society such as the American Deep South.
I've read this feedback several times and I still have no idea what you're trying to say.
Rather than drive myself nuts trying to figure it out, I'm just going to close my mind to whatever it was and move on.
The final letter comes from Skeptic Kat in Lansing, Michigan.
It was not in regards to any specific episode, just came in through the general mailbox.
Just so you know, Brian, I am canceling my subscription to your podcast and recommending others to do the same.
All these years, you have never so much as said hello to me.
And throughout the so-called skeptical blogosphere, I have either been completely ignored or actually shut out of conversations via comment moderation.
Well, then, a belated hello to you.
I'm actually working my way through delivering personal hellos to all 140-something thousand listeners.
Maybe you're down toward the Z's.
I never had a single date while identifying myself as a skeptic and have had three since deleting my blog only four days ago, which was in fact very popular.
This confirms what I've long suspected, that there's an inverse relationship between blogging and dating.
Thanks for informing me of your research.
My overall opinion of this so-called skeptical community is completely negative.
And ultimately, I think you are a group of mean-spirited and deeply unhappy individuals whose only joy in life derives from sucking all the fun out of life for everyone else.
Well, fun and joy doesn't grow on trees.
Money can't buy it.
How else can I get it other than by sucking it away from others?
I spent a lot of time and money supporting the movement, and all I got in return was a lot of cruel insults.
It's a cult.
It really is.
When you spend a lot of time and money to join a cult and ultimately get out of it with nothing worse than cruel insults, you should consider yourself lucky.
You should be thanking me.
And I don't know what to tell you, but I hate every single one of you with every cell in my body for the way you sucked me in and disrupted any chance of my ever being happy.
Never once did anyone ever say happy birthday or get well soon to me.
What logic would there be in wishing you a happy birthday when any chance of your being happy has been disrupted?
How on earth can you sit there and judge what someone else believes when you treat your own fellow non-believers with such neglect and contempt?
Why?
With my feet up, of course, and a cold drink.
I don't understand it and I never will, but I promise you that I will hate every single one of you until the day that I die.
And I really wish that I believed there was a hell for you to rot in.
Thank you for contacting Skeptoid.
Your message is important to us.
Please continue to hold.
You're listening to Skeptoid.
I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.
Hello, everyone.
This is Adrienne Hill from Skookum Studios in Calgary, Canada, the land of maple syrup and mousse.
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