Comments by "Mark Pawelek" (@mark4asp) on "Why Do We Believe Things That Aren't True?" video.

BTW: My little history of skepticism - banned for 1100 years in Europe before its revival after Galileo - is more than a parable. It is the reason why I am neither a socialist, nor a conservative. The revival in skepticism led to progress, capitalism and science. Which led me to writing this comment on Ryan's post; explaining why skepticism is NOT a meme. Science, like skepticism, is NOT a meme either. It is a method. It must be practiced in order to be understood. It is not enough to know how science and skepticism are supposed to work. You can write a book on either - without practicing either - but you will only understand them when you do them. From my experience in society I have NO confidence in either socialism nor conservatism to keep science and skepticism healthy. Without healthy skepticism society will die.
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"ideas (memes) competitively evolved that way" <- No, they did not. Let's take meta-ideas (AKA philosophy) as an example. Q: Why did Greek philosophy vanish from the West, and only "return" in the Middle Ages in a very Christianized form? A: In 529, Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian outlawed non-Christian, Greek, philosophy in its homeland. Political diktat = nothing to do with "evolution of ideas". Skepticism had been one of the 3 or 4 main schools of Greek Philosophy - it vanished from Europe for over 1000 years; making a come-back after empiricism took root in European science in the 17th century. Naturally, when it came back, the original ideas were no longer there ("Skepticism" now meant something different); but the forms of Greek philosophy returned to us. Forms = as in how it was done.
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@Devil's Logic > Where does or how dies the thought/idea to outlaw and diktat > came from in Emperor's mind? That's you projecting onto me. I never said that, and didn't think it either.
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@Devil's Logic I never said it came from the emperors head. I said it was a diktat. The Byzantinium ruling class did it. Let's build a timeship, go back, and ask them why, or we could read what they said about it. Anyhow - it certainly had nowt to do with "evolution". Skepticism sprang back 1000 years later, after 1600, when Galileo looked at Jupiter through his telescope and saw 3 moons circling it, breaking throught the crystal sphere's holding Jupiter in its orbit around earth. So "progress", led to Galileo, who led to the revival in empiricst based skepticism, which led to the Enlightenment, which led to this podcast Ryan made. This is not a virtuous meme circle - it's a virtuous skeptical circle.
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Basically - skepticism is a cultural practice which must be defended and used - otherwise it can die. As it did after 529 for about 1100 years in the West. Skepticism is NOT a meme. Had Ryan said "group think", rather than meme I'd been more impressed. Listtening to this nonsense by Ryan just makes me thing you evolutionary psychologists need to attend History 101, followed by Skepticism 101 - then you'd know enought about the world to ditch this moronic meme idea. 1. Mandatory vaccination - using vaxxes which had no Phase 4 trial and a truncated Phase 3 trial was not a MEME. It was the excise of power by a an elitist, ruling class, led by sociopathic billionaires. Not due to a bad meme they accidentally developed - but due to a lust for power and money.
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Why is Ryan talking about a "Darwinistic pressure" to spread bad ideas? There's no such thing. The very notion of a meme is the most successful "meme".
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