The Dunning Line | The Ethical Skeptic

The line beyond which, one has become so skeptical, that they have become stupid in the process. Discipline your mind into a steel trap, but make sure it doesn’t serve to only entrap you.

Rarely do I develop a post article simply for the purpose of promulgating a single definition. But this one element of my lexicon bears so much importance that herein I will depart from the habit. Below, please consider for your lexicon, ‘The Dunning Line’. Think of this principle as constituting an analogue of ‘The Mendoza Line’ from baseball, which is applied to other disciplines as a kind of minimum level of competence required to perform inside a subject. Most skeptic minions reside at a point well below this line. These characters are relatively easy to spot – save for the context of self-circumspection.

The Dunning Line

(or Inretio Line, Latin ‘ensnare’) – the line beyond which, one has become so skeptical, that they have become stupid in the process. One skilled at filtering out only that information which offends their feelings and sensibility – as opposed to being based upon actual evidence or science. Named for the minimum level of prowess one can possess and still barely function as a skeptic, as opposed to a babbling cynic.

Discipline your mind into a steel trap, but make sure it doesn’t serve to only entrap you.

The name of this term is derived loosely from the ‘Dunning-Kruger Effect’. It is also kind of funny in a way. The reader can probably tell that I enjoy the hell out of this. Making fake skeptics angry, is a functional part of ethical skepticism. The wages of dissonance.