Official Website for Amitabha Palmer
The very first thing you’re taught about writing in philosophy is to narrow your focus. Before every assignment, every professor will plead, “pick just one idea and develop it!” I tell my students the exact same thing. But today, I am going to do exactly the opposite. Don’t do as I do, do as I […]
Read More Problems with Pandemic PolicyAn important theme in Camus’ novel, The Plague, is exile from the self. What an odd idea! What does it mean to be exiled from yourself? We understand each word, but what is their significance together? Let’s begin with some excerpts then we’ll break it down and discuss it. Under other circumstances our townsfolk would […]
Read More Feeling Exiled from Yourself in The PlagueWelcome to Part 2 of my mini-series on better reasoning (Lesson 1). In today’s lesson we’re going to learn how to prove that you are right every single time–even when you’re not! You will learn about two important concepts: confirmation bias and counter-exampling. Confirmation bias is our brain’s tendency to see only confirming evidence for […]
Read More How to Ensure You Are Always RightThe internet is a fantastic place. You can find some of the most intelligent ideas and some of the most fantastically stupid ideas. Lately, the internet has been providing more of the latter. My response hasn’t been what I’d like it to be. For over ten years I’ve been studying conspiracism, science denialism, and political […]
Read More The Skeptic and The FoolIs Trump legally responsible for the death of a man who misunderstood then acted on Trump’s unfounded proclamations? That depends on your theory of causation and legal responsibility. Let’s learn about causation and responsibility in the law! The Case During his address to the nation on Friday March 19, Trump claimed that chloroquine was a […]
Read More Trump, Death by Chloroquine Phosphate, and Legal Responsibility*Record scratch* *Freeze frame* Yup. That’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up home on Saturday night writing about toilet paper and game theory in the middle of a pandemic that causes respiratory failure. Even more perplexing is why, despite no drop in production or disruptions in the supply line, toilet paper is sold […]
Read More Toilet Paper, Game Theory, and The LeviathanWe’re entering election season in the US of A, so it’s time to pollute the internet’s comments sections with fear mongering, bad arguments, strawmen, and knee-jerk reactions. Of course, these rhetorical techniques and fallacious argument forms pervade all domains of discourse. But when it comes to political discourse in ‘Murica, expect to find these cranked […]
Read More IF YOU LIKE SOCIALISM SO MUCH, WHY DON’T YOU MOVE TO VENEZUELA?I’m proud to announce that I have been blocked by a far-left facebook page for my skepticism about the current rampant conspiracism surrounding the Iowa caucus. All I really said was that it’s much easier to explain it with incompetence and poor planning instead of some long-winded conspiracy. Are we really supposed to believe that […]
Read More Conspiracism Right And Left: The Iowa Caucus DebacleWhat is It? Selective sharing involves sharing and promoting independent research to frame an issue in a way that is congenial to the propagandist. Drawing on independent research avoids people’s natural suspicions of interest-group funded or produced research (see: biased production). It also makes it harder to detect as propaganda. For a full set of […]
Read More Selective SharingI. Introduction Imagine that you can only know what you discover by yourself through trial and error. There are no websites, no books, no teachers, not even other people to talk to. How much could you know about the world? Do you think you could figure out which chemical molecules compose your food? What was […]
Read More How and Why Anti-Science Propaganda Works