It is oft said that fortune favors the brave. But what society witnessed during the last two years of raging human rights abuse, was a feckless ‘skeptic’ community, formerly raging with swagger of doubt – now silent and groveling, prostrate before their bare-naked Emperors.

Our contemporary form of skepticism since the time of Descartes has been defined as

Philosophical views which advance some degree of doubt regarding claims that are elsewhere taken for granted.

But what happens when those who have assumed the task of ‘methodical doubt’ on everyone’s behalf, fail to undertake even basic forms of the very skepticism with which they formerly intimidated all around them? Such a charade now reveals itself to all concerned, as constituting nothing more than a huckster’s act. ‘Why assume the risk of doubting? Let’s let the people we disdain take the flak.’ Having cowered in their basements for two years, my regard for pop skeptics hit rock bottom during the Covid-19 pandemic – and I did not think it could possibly sink any further. Cowards.

Cowardice, has displaced doubt in skepticism.

Fear doesn’t change people. In fact, it exposes them.

~ Ann Bauer, Author @annbauerwriter

The Ethical Skeptic, “Where Were the Skeptics?”; The Ethical Skeptic, WordPress, 8 Jan 2022; Web, https://theethicalskeptic.com/?p=60162