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sytze.eurosky.social · @sytze.eurosky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science 8/10

Will Storr takes the reader along on a journey among people with unconventional ideas about the world, meeting with a infamous holocaust denier, homeopaths and alien abductees. As the book progresses, Storr does a good job at showing how fuzzy 'truth' and 'facts' can actually be. The story is guided by the principle of 'audi alteram partem', and he makes sure to always show both sides of the case (how ridiculous something might seem). I agree with Storr's final conclusion that whenever a story - because that is simply how we as humans conceptualize the world - is too coherent, i.e. everything can be explained by causal relationships, we should be skeptical. In that sense, this could be both a conspiracy theory but also a scientific 'theory of everything' that aims to explain everything in a clear set of unbreakable rules. The book is also a good reminder that we should always at least empathize, although not necessarily sympathize, with those who differ in opinion. Everyone thinks that their set of believes is correct, but we are all prone to err, bias, and short-sightedness.

#book

Published 2026-08-06 08:09 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere