Been on various paranormal communities for years and I'm noticing something: the quality of discussion has genuinely declined. Used to be you'd get thoughtful debate between skeptics and believers. Now it's just constant arguing, personal insults, people promoting their dodgy courses or products, and complete nonsense mixed in with the occasional genuine research.
Is it just me or has the paranormal community got worse? Or am I just getting old and grumpy?
The internet happened mate. Back in the day paranormal discussion was limited to actual researchers and serious enthusiasts. Now any muppet can join a forum and spend all day arguing about whether their nan is haunted or if they saw a UFO (spoiler: it was a plane). The signal-to-noise ratio has become absolutely horrendous.
I think the issue is that paranormal topics attract people who are already predisposed to believing without evidence, so critical thinking goes out the window pretty quickly. Mix that with people selling books, courses, and "genuine spirit contact" services and you get a toxic stew of misinformation and grifting.
Fair criticism but Quirk Reports is actually one of the better communities - moderation's decent and we've got enough actual skeptics to keep the believers honest. Some other forums are basically just echo chambers for increasingly unhinged conspiracy theories.
people promoting their dodgy courses or productsThis is what annoys me most. Someone makes some YouTube videos about crystals or ghost hunting and suddenly they're selling a £200 online course. The grifting has become more blatant in the last few years. There should be stricter rules about commercial content on community forums.
You're just getting old and grumpy, which is fair enough. But also yes, the community has probably become more divided and hostile. The skeptic/believer dynamic used to involve more good faith. Now it's just tribalism and people defending their existing positions rather than genuinely exploring ideas.
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