Righteous Indignation is the weekly UK based podcast that aims to critically examine extraordinary claims and the people who surround them. These include ideas related to conspiracy, the paranormal, the occult and attempts to redefine the boundaries of science and current understanding.
Ep.38 — Rose Shapiro
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:13:13 — 33.5MB)
It has only taken a week and a half but episode 38 is finally ready to be unleashed! Software problems aside, normal service will be resumed next week. Apologies it is a bit on the long side but with the PC about to be launched out of the window it was decided to cut some losses…
Guest Host
With Marsh away in Hollywood, intoxicated blogger Dr T joins the team.
Talking Point
Idiots (sic), stupidity, delusions and misguidance
News Updates
Homeopathy evidence check
The Sun’s top ten nine ghost photos — article here
Rose Shapiro
Our Guest — Rose Shapiro
Journalist and ‘Suckers’ author Rose Shapiro explains why alternative medicine makes fools of us all. Rose recently featured in our 10:23 show in a brief interview with Hayley at the Bristol event.
Is his the right place to ask a question?
You mentioned that after the interview with the ghost hunters there was a bit of a spat on the forums, but I can’t find it.
I’d love to see the follow-up and fallout, so could you possibly give a link to where it all happened?
On your recent podcast, you discussed the use of the words “ignorant” and “delusion”. Although these words are often not pejorative in the UK, in the US, these two terms are nearly always viewed as strongly pejorative by anyone outside of the skeptic community. Additionally — many Americans interpret “ignorant” to mean “rude”, and interpret both words to imply stupidity.
This is not to say that you should alter your use of these words — for one, a UK podcast should use UK language, and for two I do feel that ignorance should be clearly called such, and delusion likewise, even if many people find those terms pejorative. I have no problems with your use of these terms. Nonetheless I thought you should be aware of the difference.
Thank you for the superb episode.
At about 1:03:07 :
Gavin Scofield: “… With the chiro practic case, and all of the negative publicity that has sprung up … do you think there is a sort of … groundswell , do you think we’re sort of winning a little bit more than we used to?“
Rose Shapiro: “I hope so, sometimes I can’t understand why we’re still having the same conversation again and again and again …“
New people are always being born, and therefor, new people are always reaching the point where they need to know the truth about quackery. Teaching people is a job that never goes away, and that’s what Rose Shapiro (and other skeptics) have gotten themselves into. Part of the reason “we’re still having the same conversation again and again and again” is that teaching is a job that never goes away. (This part is related to the reason helpdesk and tech support people keep having to explain the same things over and over and over again, even very simple things.)
Furthermore — most sorts of quackery are profitable businesses. These businesses have the money and the need to fund disinformation campaigns, misleading advertising, and other sorts of PR, which constantly fill people with bad ideas.