Colin CoghillI really enjoyed the #nzskeptics conference but it was a bit disheartening to see, amid a bunch of talks and conversations about how to talk to people you disagree with - listen to them, try to understand - a bunch of attendees went on direct, rude, attacks against at least one of the people who spoke about stuff they didn't agree with.
Sara Passmore@mugginsm Mary is my friend and I was interested to hear her thoughts on how people responded to her talk.
@KingSara yeah, she was the main one I was thinking of, seemed to get some people riled up, even though it was a perfectly reasonable, very interesting talk mostly about history and artistic inspiration. I guess it's one way for the community to look at itself, but felt a bit sacrifical.
@mugginsm interesting. I kinda think people want others to be wholly skeptical so that can agree with them, or wholly a devotee so they can dismiss them.
I think having conversations about why do people do what they do, act so irrationally, and attempt to put structure to things that are chaotic is super interesting for humanists and skeptics.
@KingSara yes, good point.
@KingSara also, I was using #nzskeptics hashtag because it was the only one I could find, I couldn't find a suitable one for the NZARH and figured since I was complaining, you wouldn't mind too much :)