Skeptic Defaultism

A bias where skepticism—specifically, the posture of doubting and demanding evidence—is treated as the default intellectual stance, and any departure from it is seen as naive or gullible. Skeptic defaultism often manifests as performative doubt: questioning everything except the value of questioning. It assumes that the skeptic has no positive commitments, only healthy doubt, while ignoring that skepticism itself rests on unexamined assumptions (e.g., that doubt is always more rational than trust). This bias can become a form of intellectual closure, where the skeptic refuses to engage with any claim unless it meets impossible standards.

Example: “He demanded proof for her lived experience of discrimination, then rejected every source as ‘biased’—skeptic defaultism, using doubt as a shield against uncomfortable truths.”

Skeptic Defaultism by Abzugal April 18, 2026