Valuation of rationality and paranormal belief

Calling themselves rationalists along with other self-validating descriptors such as freethinkers, critical thinkers and, of course, Brights, is like saying at the outset, "no matter what you think, if you disagree with me you must be wrong".

I just had a look at the Wikipedia page on "Brights". I always think it's funny when supposed sceptics swallow popular misconceptions uncritically. In this case Daniel Dennett swallowed the one about "the highly successful hijacking of the ordinary word "gay" by homosexuals". The word "gay" may not always have meant homosexual, but it certainly wasn't the childlike, innocent word that some people assume. It has had connotations of sexual promiscuity since medieval times - for example in the 15th century morality play Everyman:

"Take this, body, for the sin of the flesh;
Also thou delightest to go gay and fresh,
And in way of damnation you did me bring ..."