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Clark, we-don't-knowism is person A feigning uncertainty in a commonly accepted claim to appear open-minded and in order to cast a different, yet less extraordinary, claim as rooted in certainty and the person making that claim (person B) as closed-minded, when the guiding force behind the appeal to 'we-don't-know' is unvoiced certainty behind a more extraordinary claim.
9/11 truthers commonly express certainty among themselves that the official explanation defies the laws of physics and that it had to have been a false flag attack perpetrated by the US government. However, when talking to others many mask their certainty of the false flag narrative behind appeals of we-don't-know to appear more open-minded. It could be that some people have sincere misgivings about the official explanation and are seeking more answers before speaking conclusively about 19 Arab hijackers being behind the attacks. But for many truthers, they spend little time questioning claims that the government was behind 9/11 and are overly eager to accept those ideas while excessively questioning and doubting of the official story. This is not open-minded thinking. It is conclusive thinking.
Similarly I hear many LDS people express 'we-don't-know' about the age of dinosaurs and entertain ideas that dinosaurs came from other planets and criticize those who claim common knowledge of dinosaurs being millions of years old as closed-minded, when the likely motivating factors behind the idea that dinosaurs came from other planets is an unbending certainty that the earth's age is what is described in the Bible and that death didn't takeplace before Adam. This is not open-mindedness and it is wrong to criticize the claim that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago (common knowledge) as closed-minded and people who refuse to entertain the far more extraordinary idea that dinosaurs bones came from other planets that God took from when creating the earth as closed-minded. Before someone bandies about the idea of dinosaurs coming from other planets (or co-existing with humans, as many Pentecostals and Biblical inerrantists claim) they should present strong evidence of such.Share
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