Doggerel #44: "You're Just Rude!"

Welcome back to "Doggerel," where I ramble on about words and phrases that are misused, abused, or just plain meaningless.

Often, skeptics are accused of being rude by woos (if you'll forgive some of the inherent rudeness of that term), and it's not uncommon for the woos to be right about that. We can be very harsh in our tone, and I think it's understandable: We often have to deal with people who won't address fundamental questions. We often have to reply to cookie-cutter responses that don't address the issue. We have to spend time pointing out logical fallacies that are commonly presented in all caps. We're often aware of the various problems that arise from the lack of critical thinking. It can really wear you down at times.

Woos are often rude and don't seem to be aware of it. They commonly throw out insinuations of sinister motives, attempts to claim inherent moral high ground, straw men, etcetera.

And all of that is irrelevant. Sometimes a forum thread needs a call for everyone to cool down, but pointing out the rudeness of others seldom does anything to contribute to the argument. In fact, it often serves as a red herring to distract people from the argument, rather than promote it. If someone's claiming to levitate, I'd rather argue about the validity of test protocols than the rudeness of a word like "woo."

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