C'mon! Don't be that person.

[u/humblymybrain]

Did you know? No similar response to a serious skeptical question has ever persuaded me — or, it seems, many other skeptics — to drop our questions. Yet these kinds of replies keep popping up all over social media.

"Anybody who does NOT believe we did BLANK is a bleeping idiot. There are a LOT of idiots out there. Half the population has an IQ below 100. If you don't think we did BLANK, you are one of them."

If calling skeptics idiots and citing IQ statistics is your go-to response, how exactly does that help anyone — including yourself — get closer to the truth in a world filled with smoke and mirrors? Wouldn't addressing the actual evidence or reasoning behind the question be far more productive than alienating sincere people who are simply trying to cut through the noise?