Skeptic Project

It's been approximately a little over a year since I hung up my debunking hat and put on my full-time dad hat, so it seems a little overdue to post on my Facebook that I'm done. I did manage to meet some really cool people, hopefully taught a few people a few things, and most importantly learned a few things myself, but being active in the skeptic community just isn't for me. Though I obviously am still an atheist, still a skeptic, and still a freethinker.

Even after I went inactive on Conspiracy Science (now called Skeptic Project) I received many emails and Facebook messages -- that is up until about 6 months ago, and I've rarely received anything since. Furthermore I've noticed a general drop in so many jumping on the conspiracy bandwagon as they did with Zeitgeist. Films like Thrive have come out, but it all seems like the bubble has burst and it's all crowd preaching now.

I do want everyone to know that while I have absolutely no use for Facebook -- perhaps I'm too old or too boring -- I am still available at my email: edwardlwinston@gmail.com and am willing to discuss any topic at hand or answer any questions you may have, whether or not it's related to skeptical inquiry.

I don't plan on writing any more articles in the near future, but if I do, they will be for Skeptic Project, on my own terms, and on my own free time. I see absolutely no circumstance where I can be involved in the skeptic community full time as some of my more famous peers have been. I don't really feel like anything that's a hobby should make one feel obligated, and that's all the skeptic community really has ever made me feel -- there's a general atmosphere that once one has debunked one thing, one must keep the ball rolling indefinitely and debunk the world.

As I stated before, this is way overdue so I imagine this is a surprise to no one, but I felt like I should at least officially say something because I still sporadically get emails about when my next article will be released.

I realize this looks like a suicide note, but rest assured, you can email me any time and I'll respond as soon as I get a chance.

It's been great guys.

I think everybody knew you were taking a break from debunking but it's good to make a response about it. I never really felt obligated towards the SP community to really debunk anything that hardcore, then again I never knew the types of CT's out there. However I do appreciate the SP community and I understand better why you wrote such elaborate and detailed debunk on 9/11, zeitgeist, among others.

I have a few questions for you though. I was not aware of the whole 9/11 is a inside job thing until TZM. Would you say one of the reasons you wrote the debunk on the first Zeitgeist movement movie is because it may rekindle the 9/11 truth movement? Do you think TZM fueled back the fire for the 9/11 truth movement? Do you think TVP splitting from TZM was a good decision?

Would you agree with Muertos blog called "The Conspiracy World Is Changing. Are You Ready For It?" ?

http://muertos.blog.com/2012/02/18/the-conspiracy-world-is-changing-are-you-ready-for-it/

>> I understand better why you wrote such elaborate and detailed debunk on 9/11, zeitgeist, among others.

I didn't actually do most of the footwork for the 9/11 section of the site -- though I did do the 9/11 section of the Zeitgeist, the movie article itself. It's the only non-original content that exists here. I essentially stole content from other sites, checked the sources, re-wrote some of it, etc. I never intended on the 9/11 section here to be a great one, rather I actually wanted to start completely over and do it correctly and include all of the many things that had come up since I originally launched the site. I always thought it was terrible that everything else was original, but the 9/11 section was plagiarized -- though don't get me wrong, I don't consider it inaccurate or untrustworthy.

>> Would you say one of the reasons you wrote the debunk on the first Zeitgeist movement movie is because it may rekindle the 9/11 truth movement?

Actually no, I got involved because another former member (Eric) had showed me film as sort of a larf, and I was so annoyed with the mixing up of Horus and Ra that I wrote up a little list of everything I thought was wrong as I watched the movie. It was only after Eric had sent the document to other people I decided to create something with sources and actually fully research everything. At the time I really didn't care about the 9/11 movement, the reason I added the entire 9/11 section when I did the first Zeitgeist film was because I felt there were too many other issues that people were talking about but weren't covered in the film.

>> Do you think TZM fueled back the fire for the 9/11 truth movement?

I always felt that the truth movement was in decline since 2003/2004, so while it certainly did get a few more people on the 9/11 bandwagon, I think the general decline in trutherism was far greater anyway.

>> Do you think TVP splitting from TZM was a good decision?

I don't think it really matters the damage is done. As I stated in the introduction to my Zeitgeist II article, any association with TZM would actually make the Venus Project a joke forever. TVP had enough issues on its own, now it's just one of many things that Peter Joseph has polluted -- not that Fresco didn't do a great job of that himself.

>> Would you agree with Muertos blog called "The Conspiracy World Is Changing. Are You Ready For It?" ?

Yes, I get the sense that New Age beliefs are popping up again. This isn't the first time either, if you remember the early-mid 1990s had a very strong New Age "movement," though I guess now because of the Internet, people are giving it another go. Even in TV shows like Rugrats back then I noticed references to New Age concepts -- as a joke --, especially triangles. It's kind of funny that Dannion Brinkley didn't see the Internet coming though.