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Akshay Mathew, Joyal Siby , Muthukattil Saji Chrislin Mathew

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POST #1 Pseudoscience Watchlist :Does Not Progress

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POST #1 Pseudoscience Watchlist :Does Not Progress

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The meaning of the words ‘does not progress” is as follows: to remain unchanged and not evolve, not transform even if there is opposition in terms of evidence.

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The Flat Earth Theory best illustrates “does not progress” because the believers in this theory are murder by the evidence of flat earth, but the flat earth theory does not progress. This corresponds such obstacles to critical thinking as a scarce number of opportunities to exercise in constructing arguments and judgment, and a skewed perspective on the truth. Adherents do not use the actual critical thinking process, such as defining claims or evaluating sources—instead, relying on storytelling and demonstrating the earmarks of dogmatism that tend to come with pseudoscience.

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POST #2 Pseudoscience Watchlist: Deliberately creates mystery

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POST #2 Pseudoscience Watchlist: Deliberately creates mystery

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This phrase ‘deliberately creates mystery’ means to make something out to be complicated or mysterious than is in real sense with the sole aim of making it gain attention or attract curiosity or more unserious follow ups.

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The concept of deliberately creates mystery is strongly connected to conspiracy theories wherein the main goal is to blunt the truth and involve people. These theories give give narratives, which gives a paranoiac perspective of events and actions implying that there is always a hidden motive. This is a mystery from which critical thinking is prevented as people may not even scrutinize evidence or difference between bias and sound reasoning. Thus, they remain ignorant of fact-checking qualities and are randomly stuck in their own minds, which is fatal when faced with misinformation.

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POST #3 Pseudoscience Watchlist: Money is often involved

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POST #3 Pseudoscience Watchlist: Money is often involved

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Money is often involved implies monetary gains and benefits in making and practicing pseudoscientific activities and ideas regardless of doctrine of science.

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The relation between the ‘money is often involved’ and homeopathy kits shows the fact that the financial consideration is at work in their marketing. These are known as cure kits and advertised as safe remedies even though there is no solid science to support these claims; definitely, such products prey on people’s optimism and faith. It is manifest in the following manners: They lack the practice in evaluating evidence; they have a dearth of distorted views of truth. Applying the critical thinking process to disprove the validities presented in homeopathy, consumers may allow it and thereby block the formation of informed decisions.

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POST #4 Pseudoscience Watchlist :  Use of scientific-sounding language that is meaningless

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POST #4 Pseudoscience Watchlist :  Use of scientific-sounding language that is meaningless

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This refers to the act of applying thin veneer of scientific-sounding language, which is anything but scientifically meaningful or substantiated, to advance dubious assertions.

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The link between “use of scientific-sounding words which one cannot understand” and quantum healing is that both of them employ lots of big word in order to fool.. They disguise it as having some scientific foundation by using words such as ‘quantum fields’, ‘energy’, but alas it’s all without evidentiary backing. This practice demonstrates obstacles more pointedly embodied in critical thinking which includes a skewed view of truth and inadequate opportunities to assess evidence. The lack of a proven validity is also well concealed by advocates and that makes it hard for consumers to not only identify bias but also to scrutinize what is being offered.

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The term mythical energy can be described as any energy that is presented in an unspecified and unmeasurable form with an aim of affecting health, feeling or spirituality without there being concrete evidence.

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The relation between the “aura energy” and the “mystical energy” is that both of them are imaginary forms of energy that work through person’s wellness without any scientific evidence. Aura energy is assuring that people have an energetic field that can show health information while mystical energy embraces numerable energies. And both use informal fallacies of example and subjective stories, which demonstrates that, for example, they do not sufficiently practice the evaluation of research evidence and have a wrong idea about truth. This goes a notch higher in making it hard for the individuals to see bias and to analyze the claims made.

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“Ancient wisdom” is the extended application of information or practices borrowed from past societies directly into modern ones, particularly on socioeconomic considerations where such knowledge lacks standard empirical evidence.

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The relationship between astrology and ‘ancient wisdom’ can be attributed to the fact that astrology has its basis in old age knowledge, which professes to analyze events based on position of celestial bodies. This association gives it a credibility which hints at timeless worth. However, astrology provides absolutely no evidence, nor does it follow for experimentation or observation in the scientific manner. Such a dependence on tradition may effectively impede the critical thought process; people may believe in astrology without reviewing the data then characteristic such a view of truth as distorted.

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"Ideological Support" refers to supporting or confirming a system of ideas or values that directs a person's behavior.

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Social movements, which bring individuals together around common views, depend on ideological support. This calls for applying the scientific process, critical thinking, and skepticism. It is crucial to get past obstacles like a lack of experience, groupthink, and skewed perceptions of reality. To make sure objectives are founded on reliable sources and accurate information, the procedure entails articulating the claim, identifying bias, assessing sources and supporting data, and summarizing conclusions.

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POST#8 Red Flags: Suppression by Authorities

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POST#8 Red Flags: Suppression by Authorities

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Restricting dissenting voices and acts by censorship, intimidation, or violence is known as official suppression. Civil liberties are compromised, and the public may react negatively.

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The suppression of dissenters by authorities is a major concern, evident in the Myanmar coup, where the military's night arrests have fueled anger. The video "Myanmar Coup: Anger Fuelled By Arrests of Dissenters During Night" shows how dissent is being silenced. This undermines critical thinking and the scientific method, which rely on skepticism, questioning, and evidence. Barriers to critical thinking include lack of practice, group-think, and a distorted view of truth. The critical thinking process involves defining the claim, recognizing bias, evaluating the source, evaluating evidence, and forming a summary conclusion. To oppose suppression effectively, it's crucial to use reputable sources and focus on demonstrable validity rather than anecdotes. By applying these principles, we can better understand and challenge the tactics used by authorities to suppress dissent.

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Myanmar Coup: Anger Fuelled By Arrests of Dissenters During Night

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The propensity to favor, look for, understand, and retain information that supports one's preexisting ideas or assumptions is known as confirmation bias.    

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  It is a phenomenon well expressed in sports where fans tend to look for information that confirms the fact that their teams are superior despite the statistics of team’s games. This bias entails framing of the notion that one’s team is the best, detecting self- preferential bias, interpreting sources such as statistics of the game in a biased manner, assessing evidence in a way that will result to positive evaluation and coming up with a final summary that the team is invincible. This process highlights different forms of prejudicial critical thinking including; failure to practice critical thinking for an extended period, banding together to bully outsiders in the fan communities, and being imprisoned by ‘truths,’ which are emotionally driven and not proven. To negate confirmation bias critical thinking and skepticism are needed, meaning fans need to critically analyze sources, dispel myths, base arguments on facts and trustworthy sources rather than personal stories.

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Ideology is a collection of belief systems that a given individual uses in his/her perception of the society, and polity they live in and the moral standards.

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The relation between “ideology” and “cultural ideology” is that certain system of beliefs affects the corresponding cultural attitudes or beliefs. Whereas ideology signifies several beliefs, which are present and accepted in the society, Cultural ideology refers to those beliefs, which are shared in a certain culture. For instance, a specific political representation may cause the deployment of political values in cultural perception of authority and togetherness. It is a cycle that can form obstacles to learning, including group-think and misconceptions about the distinction between truth and falsehood that makes it nearly impossible for an individual to evaluate evidence and call out bias whenever he or she exhibits one.

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POST #11 Reasons for belief : Patternicity

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POST #11 Reasons for belief : Patternicity

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Patternicity is the ability of humans to look for patterns in randomness and make conclusions that can be fully false.

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Lack of random meaning occurs when people try to give a false meaning to random events and thus develop a wrong perception of the real events. For example, it is possible for a person to have a lucky charm and explain her success to it because of happenstance, for example, like winning in a game. This cognitive bias creates superstitions because having a fixed focus, people try to find links where none are possible side of these tendencies strengthens pseudoscientific concepts and makes a person rely on good luck or supernatural power in the absence of any scientific evidence of such attributes. Critical thinking goes against these misinterpretations.

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POST #12 Reasons for belief : Emotional Connection

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POST #12 Reasons for belief : Emotional Connection

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Emotional Connection can well be described as affection or attachment or bonds that people have for some ideas or beliefs. Such an emotional investment can decisively address how people accept or reject information especially with relation to pseudoscience. 

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It happens when people focus on their stories. This relation with pseudoscience becomes clear on that, for instance, a person uses a non-traditional treatment, they start to f towards that and think it is the cause of the positive change. It has been observed that sometimes political screening of such kind entails ignoring research arising from sciences, which is deemed politically incorrect. These first stories are often dramatic, based on personal experience, and thus increase the likelihood of adopting content that may well be fake news, purely on the basis of pseudoscientific reasoning.