Posthuman Blues

I'm quickly becoming a fan of Captain Disillusion. He's clever, thorough and entertaining, as I think this clip exposing the "Haiti UFO" demonstrates:



There's just one thing about this post that annoys the hell out of me: the fearless Captain repeatedly misuses the word "skeptic," assuming it's synonymous with "debunker." (And even this would be a mistake, as legitimate debunking entails exposing hoaxes and misconceptions that really are bogus, not subscribing to the convenient fiction that anything "weird" must invariably yield to mundane explanations.) In any case, authentic skeptics aren't automatically "anti-UFO," as Captain Disillusion seems to think.

Sure, pop skepticism has been hijacked by thinly veiled zealots like the SETI Institute's Seth Shostak and the Skeptic Society's Michael Shermer. But just because you proclaim yourself a skeptic doesn't necessarily make UFOs go away -- or "ghosts," for that matter. Despite the efforts of committed would-be debunkers, there are scads of UFO cases that remain not only unsolved but stubbornly bizarre -- one reason I like Paul Kimball's recent "Best Evidence," a UFO documentary that presents ten such cases for the viewer to puzzle over (or ignore, depending on one's bias).

I'll leave you with links to Dan Drasin's "Zen and the Art of Debunkery" and my own "Skeptics, Debunkers and Believers." You make the call.

In the meantime, let's hope Captain Disillusion learns the difference -- and continues to make great videos.