How do you opt out of forums?

That's a tough one for me. I would love for an open exchange of ideas, but I also cannot deny the considerable harm from misinformation.

What about the misinformation from mainstream sources? Will you admit that they very often spout nothing short of outrageous propaganda? Does that do harm?

"Not giving prominence" isn't censorship, though.

I disagree. Censorship can be achieved in many ways. It’s all about intent. Its tricky though, I probably wouldn’t be that keen to give equal share to Chemtrails or Flat Earthers.

At the moment, I've landed on asking "what do we lose by (in this case) asking people to opt in to forums where some of our traditional considerations don't hold?" You have to admit that there doesn't seem to be any impediment to the spread of these ideas, anyways. 
 
If people don’t see the threads then I see that as a form of censorship. 

I wouldn't censor your posts. But I have asked for some of them to be moved. Mostly because nothing good ever comes out of these discussions. 

I see that as a little presumptive. 


And I've never convinced you that people with knowledge and experience might not be brainwashed.

I’ve a very good female Doctor friend, her and I see eye to eye about many things, but not vaccines. She deals with the HPV vaccine, being a gynaecologist. She considers herself an expert when I argue in this area. She says that I am an expert pilot, because I flew aeroplanes. I used an FMC (flight management computer) constantly for many years, they are at the heart of modern aircraft. However, I have not the slightest idea how one would even look if I unscrewed a panel and looked inside.  I see this as paralleling her ‘expertise’ in HPV vaccines. I can also see her bias when she talks about Doctors and Science generally. I see the same in most educated people. Another pilot pal asked me earlier on Facebook, when talking about a different video: “Why would a Doctor be biased?”. Oh how I laughed.

I don’t know why, but knowing that you deliberately choose not to even see certain forums, unsettles me quite badly. 

It’s probably my ego.

If it's any consolation, I was quite vocally against any of those subforums existing as you may recall. [I thought Alex was covering that content on Skeptiko and didn't see the need for overlap.]

So it is nothing personal against you.

You would have to give me an example of what you mean. I see misinformation as detrimental from any source, including any mainstream sources. Mainstream media often does a poor job of science reporting, for example. 







I don't read everything out there. I even hide most of my facebook friends from my news feed. I'm not censoring you just because I'm not interested in what you have to say. You still get to say what you want, and people who aren't interested get to ignore you, while people who are get to read you without restriction. 


Yes. While I was mostly speaking for myself, I presumed that you engage in these discussion in hopes of getting others to see your point. 


See? I was right.

I don't know what the point of your analogy was, though. Because you don't know what the interior of an FMC looks like, you're obliged to take me seriously when I claim that it's full of transistor tubes?

Linda

Wow, there are so many examples. How’s about this one...

Give me a break. 

I was talking generally, not about myself.

Because you don't know what the interior of an FMC looks like, you're obliged to take me seriously when I claim that it's full of transistor tubes?

No, I’m obliged to be honest and admit that I’m not an expert on every aspect of FMCS, though I might be on some. I’d have to say I don’t know about that aspect. My friend refuses to admit that there might be some validity to parents who claim their children were damaged by HPV. That is blind bias.