wgdsr wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:35 pm
as you say, you (and i, and most here) are not a scientist.
i predict we'll keep morphing to wherever the science goes.
Neither is this dude.....sounds like one of my college teammates that skipped town owing everyone money.
Who is The Ethical Skeptic?
The context of the moniker I use or the general practitioner descriptive in the form ‘ethical skeptic’, are set in the impersonal; as in the case of The American Practical Navigator or The Creative Architect for instance. Ethics discipline and virtue signaling are two differing things. Ethics are a generic call back to a standard and stakeholder-beneficial praxis, while virtue is an individual claim to exceed someone else’s standard. Appealing to organized bank robbers to cease robbing banks, is not a form of virtue signaling. Such appeal is a right we have and a duty we hold.
In this same regard, the context of ethics employed in this blog is deontological in as far as the adherence to standards of protocol, such as the real and complete scientific method, are regarded as both sufficient and necessary to direct our knowledge development actions. An idempotent neutral practice, characterized by an aversion to tampering with observations and data in favor of one’s agency. Yet, still consequentialist from the perspective that the outcomes of value, clarity and the alleviation of risk and suffering manifest as the signature handiwork of those who practice such ethics. In my profession and research skepticism is the substrate of science, and I feel it is abused when applied in lieu of science by agenda-schooled journalists, stage magicians, propaganda bloggers, psychologists and party/social activists. The bank robbers.
Just to clarify my positions, I am not a 9/11 truther, flat-Earther nor Moon landing ‘skeptic’. These critical thinking clubs all resulted ironically from media celebrities teaching weaponized skepticism in the first place. I am an evolutionist and an ignostic atheist. I side with science inside the matters of climate change, speciation and the origins of the universe as we understand them. I am pro-transgenetic technology and pro-vaccine – I have recommended specific vaccine programs as a critical step in some of my national health strategies for developing nations. I have campaigned hard, and met face to face with the heads of state, in order to promote acceptance of GMO agricultural foods from our country into several G8 nations which refuse them. But this does not mean that I am therefore now bound to gullibly accept excessive and untested immune activation in infants or every single gene splice desired by corporations benefiting from cosmetics, monopoly or convenience. Especially if we decide that diligent science and safety study are unnecessary because such caution serves to impede our virtuous and expedient profit. I have witnessed first hand the damaging impact by those who employ the permissive identities of virtue and science to enact all manner of greed, harm and malevolent decisions on all our behalf. Science is not a license for a few oligarch-socialism seekers to do whatever they want to the public. Inside a free nation, science must ever operate inside the public trust. Moreover, this applies to skepticism as well. I am a person who employs true skepticism, and refuses to adopt the mandatory religion, politics and economic views which characterize the 768 specific conclusions of surety, foisted as settled science on the part of Social Skepticism. I am a forthright critic of this pseudoscientific, malevolent and power hungry movement.
The promotion of self is pivotal inside any public false claim to represent science. I am not here to participate in such an obsession. For reasons which serve proposing a genuine problem in philosophy therefore, you will find that within this blog I remain primarily focused upon ideas, and not necessarily on the more alluring but distracting milieu around events, popular controversies or persons. That set of distracting personages includes myself; hence my choice of anonymity. Standing inside the protection of the mob and holding a whip of social excoriation is never an act of courage, rather an act of cowardice and self aggrandizement. Such is the habit of the celebrity-seeking skeptic. Moreover, while I rely heavily upon the excellent work inside the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (
http://plato.stanford.edu/) as well as foundational philosophers such as Wittgenstein and Popper, along with modern documentarians Rosen, Nozick and Reese; nonetheless the super-majority of the thoughts presented herein are original thoughts and works of my own. They seek to place risk in epistemological conjecture; to challenge the status quo. These constructs constitute ideas derived over three decades of hard-earned and deep philosophy-altering global life exposure. A life framed in courage. You will find that I assemble these foundational principles and life experiences, then move a step further by leveraging or developing them into maturity with regard to understanding errant versus valid skepticism.
Constituting more than simply armchair weltanschauung, Ethical Skepticism is something I have learned though this arduous and world-exposed professional experience base. I am an observer of the methodology of corruption, tracing and documenting its subtle habits even if I happen to agree in many instances with the conclusions of those who practice it. Errant methodology will always legitimize itself through a public display of stooge dismantling or virtue signaling, but will always eventually produce desired surreptitiously errant outcomes. These errant outcomes then further directly relate to ignorance, stagnation and suffering – in that order. This is a law of social dynamic I have observed in many of my client nations. It is this same-styled methodology of rules gaming and junta mentality which suppresses many nations as de facto colonies, starving and sick. In the same way, the corrupted methods of Social Skepticism relegate its victims (all of us) to a purposeful state of ignorance on many subjects. A poverty of intelligence awash in a sea of correctness, seeking to maroon any idea which could even remotely threaten the awesome cosmology, hatred and politics of their insistence.
Who is The Ethical Skeptic? No one of consequence. I work professionally in engineering and science on a daily basis; however I do not claim to be a scientist myself. Rather, I am a graduate degree science and engineering professional, alumnus of the top ranked science and engineering school of its kind in the Nation, and am further then regarded by that prestigious University as one of its top graduates. I built and headed a nationally ranked advisory company from its inception, leading development of my teams’ unprecedented methods and applications which now function as standard practice in a couple industry verticals.
Strategies I have directed for my clients have backed the most successful category killer brands on the planet and ascertained direction for some of our largest nations on the globe. They have been touted as the smartest moves in decades by several large and familiar corporations. One multi-year brand and market strategy/campaign I directed in particular, was awarded one of the highest global awards achievable for such work. Strategies I have directed for nation-clients have focused on critical famine, disease, resource and medical infrastructure for over 15 nations. Aside from critical national events requiring my particular set of skills, I have retired from this work and now acquire and run companies focused on mercy, global trade and energy.
In younger days I was privileged to have served as a top ranked Naval Officer – highly sought for the most premium deployed operational theater, Washington D.C. and flag-level support billets in the United States Navy. I have served as a Director level, Black Intelligence Officer. I am professionally trained in the ability to prosecute a solution and recognize agency inside asymmetry. I have headed a classified research lab which developed groundbreaking scientific discovery on behalf of very grateful stakeholders. I have traveled the globe extensively for decades, holding 4 million frequent flier miles. I’ve been shot at, sequestered by violent regimes, met with opposing empire intelligence agents, nearly been knifed, performed surveillance on pirate businesses and been held at at gunpoint by mercenaries and juntas. I can spot a poseur from a mile away. My skills set includes observing and elucidating the habits of those who practice corruption and agency as a matter of social protocol.
Finally, I both chair and fund an endowment at my alma mater for financially disadvantaged students, as well as advise its post graduate schools on what industry needs most from new graduates. I was selected to tour a U.S. President and First Lady around our University campus. I have advised several G8 world leaders, several US Senators, and 4 other heads of state globally in my respective professions.
Do not allow a fake skeptic to instruct you that this type of impact is not attainable inside one lifetime. It is exactly such lazy, self-centered cynicism which hinders their accomplishing similar; failing to understand that critiquing skills come at a dime a dozen and obtaining a professional category title, sitting around running integral functions or writing a book do not constitute pinnacles of life achievement.
Certainly not an expert on everything, you will find few people on this planet who have touched as many disciplines, worked as hard, seen or accomplished as much, nor observed as many paradigm shattering things inside a life. It is not that smart people believe weird things, but rather what I observe among scientists of the highest caliber acumen: they are wise in their application of intellectual integrity. At some point inside a doctrinal array of conclusive arguments, the ethical mind must eventually broach dissent, and question the nature of linear thinking certainty inside asymmetric, partially understood systems. Mindlessly falling prey to a bandwagon effect does not qualify one as rational nor as a critical thinker. You cannot justify the corruption of mind with a series of memorized one-liners. As my favorite professor in Standard Model particle physics used to say, “It is not simply the correctness of your answer I want you to express, rather demonstrate the rigor and quality of your thinking.” The rigor and quality of our thinking has been sacrificed at the alter of authorized correctness masquerading as science.
Never use skepticism as an excuse to dissuade anyone’s life from expressing its full extraordinary potential, especially your own.