We are verbs.

I’ve decided to update my bios on various venues on the web at some point, since most of them are simplistic.

Too simplistic. Convenient, but still too simplistic.

Why?

Because people are not nouns. We are not collections of simple one-or-two syllable terms. Human beings can never be adequately defined and described by simple static descriptors.

We are what we are, but nothing about us can be fully captured in the space of a few brief words. We do things, we perform actions.

We are verbs, not nouns.

We are not just artists, nor writers, nor believers, nor nonbelievers, nor followers, nor leaders, nor students, nor teachers, nor are we just collections of the countless other descriptive labels, though these are a useful shorthand when we are in a hurry, or constrained by space limitations on a blogpost or a brief biographical description on a personal website.

The problem is that over-reliance on these leads to stereotyping, because language is not neutral, and the meaning that the writer of the blogpost or bio-page puts into them very often isn’t the same as the meaning that the reader supplies to them.

Ask a religious nonbeliever what ‘atheist’ or ‘agnostic’ or ‘humanist’ or ‘secularist’ or ‘rationalist’ or ‘freethinker’ or ‘antitheist’ means and ask the same of any randomly selected self-described religious or spiritual practitioner, and very, very often you will get two very different answers.

The content and meaning of these answers will diverge greatly, depending on the differences in culture, worldview, education, and personal background.

Ask someone who practices analytical thinking skills, has a fair level of scientific literacy, a healthy level of suspicion for questionable claims, and who values the use of reason in argument what a ‘skeptic’ is, and you will very likely get a completely different answer from that of, say, a New Age practitioner of crystal healing and Reiki.

The point is, again, that few people, save those with compatible perspectives, are likely to attribute the same meaning to the same nouns, so labels can cause difficulties.

They lead, for one thing, to stereotyping, though as long as one keeps in mind that the stereotype is just a schematic and not a literal representation of reality, all is well.

The problems result from the fact that few of us do this. We tend to be lazy thinkers, even the smartest of us, using cognitive shortcuts to reach closure on a matter quickly, and while this is efficient and usually works in ordinary usage, it is hardly adequate for scenarios we are not prepared for, that may require deeper levels of problem solving skills.

When we see a stereotype and confuse it for the literal reality of what or who it seems to apply to, not just a schematic or an abstraction, we commit a hasty generalization — reaching closure on something from an insufficient number of instances (or too low a sample size in statistical lingo) — and this can lead to bigoted thinking.

I am not a skeptic, nor a fractal artist, nor a blogger, nor a cat person, nor any other collection of nouns, though I’ve used these as a convenient shorthand, not that it hasn’t caused confusion in a number of instances…

Better still, from a verbal perspective…

I practice and seek to develop clearer thinking skills, to hone the edges of my reasoning and argumentation ability, improve my level of education and science savviness, to protect myself and others from scammery and flim-flam artists, to look into the claims of cranks and quacks, and generally help support good science education.

I make fractal artwork as a pastime with the intent to develop it to professional levels. I think that cats are some of the most awesome animals on the planet, and not just in internet memes (though I confess some bias there).

I post on a number of blogs and internet social media like Facebook and Twitter, and through these I’ve come in contact with and interact with some of the coolest people my species has ever produced.

Like anyone else, there are countless things I do daily, weekly, monthly and over spans of years, even the most ordinary tasks, that cannot possibly be adequately captured in just a few words on a Twitter bio or Facebook page.

People are far too nuanced than that, and that includes anyone reading this post.

So consider thinking of people in terms of verbs, not static nouns, as intelligent causal agents who do things, rather than just simple clusters of tags and labels. The world may seem a lot more complex if you do, but it will also be a lot more interesting as well.

Try it.

The Gnuz and Lynx Roundup for Caturday, 2013/03/23

English: Profile Photo of Kylie Sturgess (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

G’day, peeps! This Caturday marks the first time in a bit that I’m on my own even with my evil feline masters pulling my puppet strings…

There’s a family gathering up north, and I’ve opted to stay home to take care of the plants, my own cats, and to feed the little furry beggars that stop by for kibble and cheeseburger or the equivalent thereof. Study has come along nicely, and I’ve plans to sign up for online courses at a local college during the summer.

I expect that I should do well, though it’ll be a bit before I decide on a major and get into a full-fledged Uni. Blog-hopping has seen a few changes, with my favorite Token Skeptic, Kylie Sturgess relocating to Patheos blogs this week, and I plan on keeping up with her posts on a regular basis. Hmmm, I’ll have to update all bookmarks linked to her old site to the new venue, but that shouldn’t be a worry.

I’ve been getting a bit more personable on Twitter, which is a good sign, as I’m no social beast and don’t chat up easily, but I need to build and maintain regular interaction with other rationalists, my nonbeliever and skeptic friends, book bloggers and writers, and those more prominent members of the online rationalist community I keep up on. Most of my tweeting I now do on Tweet Deck, and I have been making heavy use of Facebook, which somewhat less activity on Pinterest and Tumblr.

———–Bloggy Lynx———–

• Ideas
• eBook Review: In Memoriam by S.A. Barton
• Why can’t we see evidence of alien life?
• Timeless Man
• Belief…
• Fractals of the Week: Resistance is Fractal – You will be Assimilated!
• Caturday’s Astronomy Pix for 2013/03/17-23

———Others’ Bloggies———

• GLAM — Open Library
• Guest Post: Dawkins at the Philomathean Society Annual Oration
• Superstition by QualiaSoup
• Always by D.M. Yates
• The Rape Blame Game
• Teleology, Destiny and a Life of Purpose
• Socrates, Unafraid

————-Odd & Doubtful Stuff————-

• Big cat sighting near Dursley but no other evidence noted
• Sheep attacked. Chupacabras, of course.
• Doctors miss the point. It comes out three years later.
• ‘Male enhancement’ herbals contain undisclosed, possibly dangerous ingredients.
• Mass death of Prawns create pink tide in Chile.
• Bart Simpson on trial with your honor, Mr Burns
• Oh, those shifty Secret Service alien agents!
• Caution needed on autism “epidemic”

———-Bloggy Stats———-

• 125,214 steely gazes cast here since 2008/12/28m
• 1821 comments approved – Please keep them coming!
• 2032 posts, including this one,
• 188 WordPress subscribers – Thank you…You make this blog worth posting on!
• 1969 Twitter fellows,
• 19 likes on Facebook… Much appreciated!

———-The Randi Show – Coincidence———-

I’m on Twitter hiatus for a bit. I’ll be back.

Lately, I’ve been taking home study courses to improve my academic skills, and just for the sheer fun of making myself a better student and reader, and found it necessary to devote more of my time to study and reading. I’ve also been spending time on Twitter, at least until the last couple of days, since I’ve found myself too given to distraction, and I need to focus on learning.

So, I’m taking a break from Twitter, at least for a week, maybe more, though I’ll keep in contact with my tweeps through direct messaging when not forbidden, through Facebook, and through regular email.

But, no tweeting, at least, no live tweeting, just autotweets from my WordPress blogs and Tumblr page, and when I decide to set things up for it, my Facebook posts. But no tweets directly by being logged into my Twitter account.

I’ve noticed that my tweets were beginning to get a bit stale…something was missing…I simply wasn’t allowing myself time to come up with anything interesting, and the minute-by-minute status updates get a bit old after almost three years. There’s a lot of ‘noise’ on Twitter, which is what one would expect for the enormous volume of information coursing through it’s millions of accounts, and that noise can be difficult to sort out from the important posts, from useful information.

Twitter is a great way to keep in contact with people I’ve met online, and those friends I’ve met there are very dear to me, but I need to get away from the volume of noise and data for a bit, sort things out, figure out what I really want to accomplish in social networking. I have some very interesting people following my account, many very well-known in some circles, better known than a nobody like yours truly. Sometimes I chat with them, people continents away, and I’ve even chatted with those people not following my tweets, prominent figures in the rationalist community who’ll remain unnamed.

I also follow lots of interesting people, over 1865 at last count, though that varies depending on whatever issues the server is undergoing. There’s been a glitch in Twitter’s software that causes the server to randomly follow or unfollow people without warning for an account, though it’s been worse in the past, and caused a lot of unnecessary acrimony.

I’m in the process of training myself to better manage distraction, and that should smooth out my interaction on the site, make it easier for me to keep in contact with people and avoid the errors caused by data overload and burnout, while also being more relaxed online and thus less prone to miss important things through over-focusing. Also pending is improvement in my ‘people skills,’ which have lately been somewhat deficient.

I’ve no interest in cutting ties with people on Twitter…I’ve met very few trolls, save the infamous Dennis Markuze and very few others. Yes, “I’ve been Mabused.”

Meh. Sounds like a disease…

Once this break is over, I’ll be making better, more effective, efficient, and enjoyable use of my social networking time, but for now, it’s time out for Troythulu.

Until I’m back, my cosmic and brilliant tweeps, carry on and keep the unfaith. You will anyway.

To Ring in a New Year on the Call…

Frank Discussions With Dr. Novella (Photo credit: DaveFayram)

I’ve decided to tweak this blog’s look for 2013, updating the background image and header text color with something just a bit less garish than previously, and I may do this again within the week to get things just right, and not too dark or bright for the skeptical scrutiny of browsing eyes.

During the past year, one of the biggest single referrers for links and steely gazes cast on this blog was the James Randi Educational Foundation for a video post on a talk that Steven Novella gave at TAM 6, so many thanks, JREF. The other referrers were social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook, and thanks go out to all those who’ve shared or tweeted this blog’s content in 2012 — This blog couldn’t have been as active as it has without that. Also much appreciated was referrals to this site by my fellow bloggers from their own sites, and the discussions with them via comment threads both here and elsewhere online.

Strictures on commenting have been relaxed a bit, but nota bene the warning in the prompt just above the commenting box — attempting to promote your propaganda or advertise for your latest bestseller or porn site will not be tolerated — there are plenty of other places online to do that besides this blog. Free speech must be tempered with responsibility and honesty, not corrupted by bullshit.

I’m open to suggestions by any of this blog’s readers on good skeptical and sciencey topics for posting this year, and any ideas that may be used to make this site a tad more appealing in layout and artwork. I’m going to be reducing my posting of strictly atheist material, and focus instead on those areas and matters where it converges with science and skepticism.

For those of you new to this blog, be informed that this site is biased — it is unequivocally biased in favor of science and I fully support a scientific consensus unless and until it is shown wrong by the same process of evidence and thinking that led to it. — it will do no good to try debunking science by arguing from a religious, political, economic, or other ideological position, since that just shows a profound failure to understand the scientific process — again with attempts to promote your agenda in the guise of free speech.

No.

On this I agree with Grumpy Cat.

Have a wonderful remaining Tuesday, and a very happy New Year. I know what my resolutions are for this year, and may all of you fulfill yours in the months to come! Thank you for your participation in this blog’s online community.

 

I Don’t Call People Stupid…

facebook engancha (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

…and I don’t, not because I’m a nice guy — there are times where my darker nature frightens even me — but because it diminishes me and demeans the one I’d otherwise call stupid. Believe me, there are times I’ve been sorely tempted, and each day I plan out arguments, but not those I will use — those I won’t, or those arguments I hope never to have to use — so scathing do they seem to me in the unvoiced rehearsal of my internal monologue.

But scathing is not something I do well, nor do I hope to. All too often, there’s the temptation to, as Carl Sagan put it, “…wax contemptuous and superior” and the temptation disgusts me.

This is a good thing, I suppose, for snark is a skill set I don’t like to exercise, as I’m forced daily to recognize boundaries for civil relations with people that should not be crossed if effective communication is to be achieved. I suspect that there’s a lot of native intelligence even in the willfully ignorant, and that its not so much people who are stupid, but dogmatic ideologies, erroneous doctrines, and fallacious arguments, failed promises, and exaggerated claims meant to snare the unwary.

I know paranormal believers and people of religious faith, many of them friends and family, and I have no intention of considering them idiots.

I don’t call people stupid — not because of some noble impulse or silly sense of high-mindedness — but because I just don’t feel comfortable doing it. It doesn’t sit well with me but I also don’t judge those who do it, for that would say nothing of them and speak volumes about me. Let others use the methods that work for them.

But calling people stupid leaves an ugly feeling in my gut.

There was an incident on Facebook last evening. Someone I know had private messaged me and went on a tirade about my calling her husband stupid, and I’m pretty sure that no such thing happened — it is simply not done — and confused, I pressed her to explain, but she would give me no specifics. Finally I grew tired of the game being played and asked her to name one instance, just one, where and when I called her husband stupid.

Image via CrunchBase

Her only reply: “Never mind.”

She gave no answer to my question, leaving me to conclude that she didn’t have one.

I thanked her in annoyance and broke off the chat at that point. I’d had my fill of vacuous nonsense and was quite angry with her, and at no time had she ever shown any specific knowledge of what she claimed. I’ll say this much: If ever that night I had been tempted to call anyone stupid, it wouldn’t have been her husband, who is more intelligent than me in a number of ways.

She owes me an apology, by the way, for my anger at her cost me several valuable hours of restful sleep which would have been useful before my kitten, Mr Eccles, got me up later that morning to be fed. How rude. Not Eccles — her — for ruining a potential good night’s sleep over trumped-up churlish foolishness.

But I’m not that nice, I’m just not that good at putting people down with skill and finesse — I’d make a poor standup comic — So I use what works, naughty or nice.