All posts tagged: Skepticism

Birth control skepticism, teen fertility education center stage at Trump’s women’s health summit

Birth control skepticism, teen fertility education center stage at Trump’s women’s health summit

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON — Surrounded by hot pink lights and cherry blossom pink drapes on a ballroom stage, family doctor Marguerite Duane offered a seemingly simple solution to infertility: Doctors should have conversations with young girls about whether they want to have children one day. “I have these conversations with children starting at 8, 10, 12 years old: What do you want to be when you grow up?” Duane said. If you’re a child who wants to be a doctor, for instance, “there are things you need to put in place. If you hope to have children one day, there are things that you need to consider and have the conversation early.” The proposal from Duane, a specialist in restorative reproductive medicine who is affiliated with the anti-abortion Charlotte Lozier Institute, got a warm reception from the audience gathered for the Trump administration’s inaugural National Conference on Women’s Health. The three-day event hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services last week was designed to “explore breakthroughs in research, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of health conditions …

The Journalist Who Became the Face of Epstein Skepticism

The Journalist Who Became the Face of Epstein Skepticism

Published by Daniella Wilson

Michael Tracey, a Substack-based independent journalist known for his contrarian instincts, thinks the Epstein case may have broken our brains. Having long ago escaped the confines of a courtroom, the saga has metastasized into what he calls a “conspiratorial everything theory,” swallowing presidents and princes, financiers and Hollywood executives, intelligence agencies and late-night punchlines. “I am more convinced than ever,” Tracey tells me in a Signal chat, “that this is by far the worst covered story of my lifetime.” That is not a fashionable position. Tracey has become the most visible public face of a loose but vocal faction of Epstein skeptics that includes commentators such as Robbie Soave and Claire Lehman. Within that small circle, he has taken the most flak. His reflex to interrogate consensus is longstanding. Earlier in his career, he challenged elements of the Russiagate narrative, breaking with progressive orthodoxy and earning a reputation for staking out unpopular terrain. If there is a media stampede, Tracey tends to run the other direction. His central argument is not that Jeffrey Epstein was …

When Faced With Liars, Skepticism Can Help

When Faced With Liars, Skepticism Can Help

Published by Jenni Sidey

If you find yourself in a relationship, workplace, or political environment that is constructed more on lies than truth, it is helpful to use psychological research to remain safe and sane. Lies target our mental health, yet we receive little training on how to keep our brains protected from this kind of abuse. Our brains were not designed to pour resources into trying to figure out if someone is telling the truth or not. We evolved to need connection and community to survive. In general, our brains give people the benefit of the doubt to preserve cognitive resources for many other cognitive demands. We are gullible by nature, and even highly educated and advanced individuals can be manipulated by falsehoods. That said, there are strategies that all of us can use if we are concerned that someone is trying to mislead us. These strategies can alert us to liars before our brains get traumatized. Abuse Culture Outlined in detail in The Gaslit Brain, six strategies can protect you from the lies of bullying, gaslighting, and …

How Wicked Reflects Real-World Intersections between Belief and Skepticism

How Wicked Reflects Real-World Intersections between Belief and Skepticism

Published by Sam Flores

The desire to conform to often-misguided cultural norms—or even outright misinformation—was highlighted beautifully in the popular Broadway-show-turned-movie Wicked as it explored the parallels in how this journey to fit in can change us. Both the film and the stage show do an excellent job of showcasing how going against the grain can be immensely challenging while highlighting many skeptical undertones. The Wicked franchise is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, filling in the backstory of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch). Whereas The Wizard of Oz clearly identifies who is evil and who is good, Wicked flips the script by telling a story that reflects the life experiences and earnest motivations of the “Wicked” Witch. Upon watching Wicked (both the Broadway show and the first movie), the parallel between Elphaba (the skeptic) and Glinda (the believer) became immediately clear to us as Glinda repeatedly compromises her integrity and abandons her reason to avoid confrontation and fit in while Elphaba, unwilling to do the same, is forcibly removed from …