Sceptics unite in an age of misinformation for Skepticon 2021

For sceptics, discussing and debunking misinformation and myths is all part of the game – but 2021 has been one of the toughest years.

Tim Mendham says the desks of sceptics are often dented from the constant banging of heads.

It’s a natural response, he says, to people’s gullibility and stupidity – and 2021 has been a particularly rough year for his desk.

The executive officer of Australian Skeptics – the world’s second-oldest English-language sceptics group – has been flat our preparing for this weekend’s national convention.

And possibly headbutting his desk. But mainly preparing for the convention – Skepticon 2021 – that sees some of Australia and the world’s most prominent sceptics come together (online this year) to discuss, debate and, most importantly, debunk.

Mr Mendham said 2021, largely thanks to the pandemic, had been a particularly busy year for sceptics as they battled misinformation on everything from medical advice to deep, wide-ranging conspiracy theories.

Coronavirus, and all it has inspired, will be addressed by several speakers at Skepticon, including Annie McCubbin discussing how the pandemic has given wellness marketers the perfect platform to sell “woo”, especially to women; and Dr Siouxsie Wiles, a New Zealand microbiologist and science communicator whose work on explaining Covid saw her entangled in conspiracy theories and labelled, among other things, a Satanist. Heavy stuff.

Mr Mendham said in many cases the battles waged by the Australian Skeptics were against relatively harmless ideas – water divining, astrology, reports of paranormal activity, claims of UFO sightings – but in some cases the ideas had the potential to cause serious physical or mental harm. “The fun end is the flying saucers and the Loch Ness monsters and that type of thing, and they don’t generally hurt people all that much,” he said.

Tim Mendham, Australian Skeptics executive officer. Picture: Supplied

“And then we get down to the serious end when we have practitioners that abuse people – financially, mentally, emotionally. These psychics – particularly the top-end celebrity ones – and the people selling quack cures and the anti-vaxxers, that’s when it gets dangerous and serious.”

Mr Mendham said the rise of social media had made dissemination of misinformation easier than ever.

“Someone can make a claim and that claim can spread very quickly,” he said.

“It’s like the old saying, ‘It takes a second to light a bushfire and a week to put it out’. Are we up against it? Yes, but we’re still going to keep trying.

“You’re probably not going to convince the true believers, but I would appeal to people to examine the evidence – the real evidence – rather than relying on the Facebook algorithms.”

And if you are a psychic, water diviner, telekinesis practitioner or someone who knows where a UFO is parked, Mr Mendham has a challenge for you.

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so we offer $100,000 to anyone that can prove they have a paranormal power,” he said.

“We’ve done about 200 tests over the years. We figure out a test that is mutually acceptable – both sides have to be happy with the rules – and then we try them out. We haven’t had to pay anyone yet.”

Details: skepticon.org.au

Kelly’s non-science

And the winner is ... Craig Kelly! The leader of the United Australia Party has won the Australian Skeptics’ less-than-desirable Bent Spoon award for 2021 – as the “perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle”.

Rise Up! Melbourne protest against the Pandemic Bill, vaccine passports and mandates throughout the streets of Melbourne's CBD. Craig Kelly walks through the crowd and speaks over the microphone. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Mr Kelly joins a list of recipients that includes Pete Evans (twice), SBS and a psychic dentist. “Craig Kelly was a unanimous choice by sceptics groups around Australia,” Australian Skeptics’ Tim Mendham said.

“(He) has been spreading – or more likely shouting – misinformation about Covid and vaccinations for some time, offering dubious cures, conspiracy theories, and an interesting way with statistics.”

Bizarre predictions but what’s the success rate?

Did you know that the Queen actually abdicated in 2003? And in 2004, 2012 and again in 2020?

The Queen. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Or that the US suffered major terror attacks in 2003, 2004, 2012 and 2020?

Or that anti-gravity would become a reality, Prince Harry would be king and an ice-age would spread across Europe? Oh, and huge skeletons of humanoids would be found in Central Australia?

These are only some of the more than 3800 predictions made by Australia’s best psychics and seers in the two decades from 2000 to 2020 – and the vast majority were wrong.

In fact, according to Skeptics’ chief investigator Richard Saunders their success rate was a pretty ordinary 11 per cent.

“If your car mechanic was wrong 89 per cent of the time, you’d get a different mechanic,” Mr Saunders said.

“But if all mechanics were wrong 89 per cent of the time, you’d wonder about the industry as a whole.

“That what it seems to be with psychics in Australia.”

Mr Saunders, a speaker at this weekend’s Skepticon, led a team that assessed the thousands of predictions made over the past 20 years by more than 200 self-professed psychics.

It is probably the largest such project undertaken anywhere in the world.

“We could not have predicted just how mediocre Australia’s best psychics are at seeing the future,” Saunders said.