Thursday, October 22, 2020

Without a Doubt, James Randi is Dead

 

 
A few hours ago I read in the New York Times:
 
"James Randi, a MacArthur award-winning magician who turned his formidable savvy to investigating claims of spoon bending, mind reading, fortunetelling, ghost whispering, water dowsing, faith healing, U.F.O. spotting and sundry varieties of bamboozlement, bunco, chicanery, flimflam, flummery, humbuggery, mountebankery, pettifoggery and out-and-out quacksalvery, as he quite often saw fit to call them, died on Tuesday at his home in Plantation, Fla. He was 92."
 
Most headlines I came across announcing his death referred to James Randi either as a skeptic or as someone who debunked all claims of the paranormal. This is not true.
 
James Randi wasn't a skeptic; he was as close-minded as they come, and he always positioned himself to never have to account for his close-mindedness. He was more of a debunker than a truth-seeker. This made him often wrong and unjust, but he was respectable as a great entertainer who often did get it right by exposing frauds and quacks. 
 
May he rest in peace.