Skeptic Orthodoxy

The established, institutionalized set of beliefs and practices that define mainstream skepticism—the often-unexamined assumptions about what counts as proper skeptical inquiry, what targets are worthy of skepticism, and what methods are legitimate. Skeptic orthodoxy includes specific commitments: that science is the only reliable path to knowledge, that supernatural claims are always suspect, that conspiracy theories are always false, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, that believers are victims of cognitive bias, that skepticism means doubt rather than openness. Like all orthodoxies, it provides a framework for inquiry, but it can become dogmatic—applying skepticism selectively (intensely to claims it dislikes, minimally to claims it favors), treating its own assumptions as beyond question, and marginalizing skeptics who question the orthodoxy. Skeptic orthodoxy determines what claims are "worthy of investigation," what methods are "properly skeptical," and who counts as a "real skeptic" versus a "pseudoskeptic" or "gullible."

Example: "He called himself a skeptic but had never questioned any of his own community's assumptions—skeptic orthodoxy, where doubt is applied to everyone except us. The orthodoxy's power is making its own beliefs feel like the absence of belief."

by Dumu The Void March 17, 2026