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Cos that's where all the bunk is/comes from. :D And I like that you admit that unashamedly. Better than pretending or being defensive. "Ignorance is bliss," as they say. Cos those places are (relatively) incredibly sane. :) Let's see if we can help with that: Sweden is Bjorn Borg; blonde...

That's nice. :) I wouldn't. But I know you're very good at googling and researching and learning. Number one, the Netherlands may be relatively small geographically (Sweden isn't) but they're not exactly obscure countries. Number two, I didn't. And number three, the UK doesn't use popular...

See UK election 1951: The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held twenty months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats. The Labour government called a snap election for Thursday 25 October 1951 in the hope of increasing its...

Changed a few things based on what you wrote @Mendel. As for: I purposefully didn't bring proportional representation into it, since that seemed it would only complicate matters further. And since I don't see anyone mixing up those two things here probably no real need to get into it. Of...

Reading this it occurs to me that part of my problem might be that I don't actually know anyone I would consider un-intelligent. So probably I'm not qualified to talk on the subject since, at best, I'm only seeing half the picture (and most likely less than that). Yep, there are lots of...

Nobody wants to talk more about all the misunderstandings about the words "republic" and "democracy" - so that's what I'm going to do, since I feel I may have learned something more about it. Going back to the beginning, the tangent started here, when Deirdre twice posted a phrase I found...

Thank you for posting this. It gave us all a real chuckle here in the casa.

That's awesome. Upper-middle class in the UK means having a large house and probably at least one other property, several nice family holidays a year, plenty of disposable income, and all the kids go to the best and most expensive private schools and get to do and have everything they can think...

Is it okay if we call it "critical thinking" instead? Or define "skepticism"? Thinking about what makes someone a good critical thinker, maybe if we list the components to that it will answer your question. In no particular order, just off the top of my head, they would need to: Have the time...

When was that? And where? Something along those lines is probably true. It's always struck me as terribly unfair that a solicitor - I think in the US known as a barrister, but not the type that defends clients - can earn hundreds of dollars/pounds for looking over some papers and putting their...

You're going to have to define what you mean by skepticism for me to answer that question. ;) But, anyway, in the case of someone like Brett Weinstein ("brilliant evolutionary biologist" but Ivermectin pusher and vaccine-phobe) I'd be more interested in their psychological and emotional...

We may have to define intelligence at some point. Is a man who can dismantle a non-functioning car engine and put it back together good as new but can't read or write intelligent? Is a high-ranking PhD educated politician adept at understanding complex issues but a dishonest manipulator and...

Yeah, academic credentials (or lack of) mean nothing to me: I've been around enough PhDs who seemed to not possess much in the way of common sense or basic understanding of straightforward subjects to have that knocked out of me. And I'm sure we can find a long list of great - and smart - people...

Looks like an interesting topic for discussion. First of all - and call me a skeptic - but I'm a bit dubious about claims like this: It also struck me when you described yourself as "an average American voter" - I just think you come across as too eloquent, articulate, self-aware, balanced...

Ok. I can be good with that also. If that actually means "past personal experience" and "accumulated beliefs (tested and otherwise)" then I can only speculate but...maybe? Ditto. Many times. That's one of the reasons I can safely say to this: No no no: not sorry "if". To be fair my...

If that's the problem then maybe another factor in the confusion is that in all my talk of the definition of the word "republic" I haven't been referring to the second factor ("how the will of the people is input into governance") since, for me, that doesn't come into it, they're two separate...

I was just thinking "it's been a long time since Deirdre's played the gender/sex card". ;) If it's referring to something specific then it's probably best to mention that rather than presenting it in general terms. I'll pop it on the 'to do' list. But if you think they're not different...

I hear ya, though I'm not sure what it could be used for. At this stage I honestly can't see any other way of explaining the Calvine photo other than having the photographer come forward (or finding a perfectly matching reflecting rock in a perfectly matching place).

That's what they call themselves, yes. But I'm not going by that, I'm going by "they're republics because they're not monarchies". But they haven't disagreed either. And if a good dictionary supports your definition then who am I to say otherwise? ;)

Still ambiguous and unclear. :D You said: Which I read as meaning in a general term, since it wasn't referring to anything specific (ie, it could have been referring to anything you've written on any post here on metabunk over the years - as well as in the future) whereas your repeated...