ISP #26 – Social Justice Warriors Unite!

From June 28, 2014. We talk about the difference between social justice activists and “social justice warriors” – the people who make being outraged a hobby. We find points of agreement and disagreement. We make dick jokes. This was a mostly free-form discussion, so… enjoy!

 

Seriously, can we just not waste time and money on stuff that isn’t possible?

This is fascinating. Steven Novella and David Gorski wrote an opinion article questioning whether it’s worthwhile to do clinical trials on medical modalities that don’t have any prior scientific plausibility, such as homeopathy and reiki. Basically, it’s an extension of their promotion of science-based medicine (which uses a Bayesian analysis of what we actually know throughout the sciences) versus evidence-based medicine (which just relies on the examination of the evidence in a specific experiment). And they’re getting flack about it – from people who thoroughly misunderstand their position.

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Help make skeptical and scientific content accessible!

According to the WHO, 5% of the world’s population – about 360 million people – are deaf or hearing-impaired. That’s a huge audience that isn’t being served if your videos aren’t captioned. There are also, obviously, lots of skeptics who don’t speak English but who would love the material as well.

To better serve these segments of the skeptical community, a few groups have started projects to subtitle skeptical and scientific videos, through services like Amara.org. Tim Farley, over at the Skeptools blog, has written up a post summarizing a few of the efforts that are ongoing. If you think you might be able to help out, even with just a video or two, surf on over and check it out. Find something you’re interested in and get captioning!