Pwnzistor
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He advocated critical thinking and skepticism. Randi was a magician so he knew all the tricks- Some people tried to pass these tricks off as having real powers to scam people and Randi would be like "Nah dude".
Chilichunks
My dad hated Randi because, "No one ever beat his challenge because he kept moving the goal posts!" My dad thinks remote viewing, among other stupid things, is real.
dhflaherty
I saw him a couple times in a Publix in south Florida and he was always
Willing to chat and be very nice
Kwyjor
I enjoyed his blog and it was all fun and educational twenty years ago, but in the intervening years it seems to have developed into a lot of unpleasant political commentary.
downsouthfarm
Randi was a showman and that is all. He didn't have any scientific qualifications and his prize was dodgy as fuck. https://www.scienceandpsi.net/2023/10/14/unmasking-the-james-randi">pticism/">https://www.scienceandpsi.net/2023/10/14/unmasking-the-james-randi-million-dollar-challenge-questioning-credibility-in-skepticism/ https://www.dailygrail.com/2008/02/the-myth-of-the-million-dollar-challenge/
WeHaveCheese
Nah, dude.
RevRagnarok
Great video interview with him and Alice Cooper - he's the one who designed the guillotine used in his shows. - DragonCon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKpig-0_mOw
RevRagnarok
Great background about Carson here - https://old.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1oqksfq/performance_magic_and_pok%C3%A9mon_uri_geller_the/
adricar
Saw him and immediately thought “Master Roshi!”
AmaraDela
Was my hero too ever since I saw him on P&T Bullshit. Amazing man. Deserved his title.
Whiskeyjelly
There’s an amazing documentary about him and his personal struggles. I highly recommend it. https://www.google.com/search?q=an+honest+liar+documentary&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#ebo=0
aslum
Seconding that recommend.
NotThisGuyAgain
I met him once. He was doing a lecture at Fermilab on how even smart people can be conned by stuff they _want_ to believe in. Afterwards, he and I talked about psychic surgery, as I was doing a bit of it in a stage play I was performing at the time. Super nice guy. Great sense of humor.
allenvasher3000
Continuing the work of Houdini
cjpoet
One of my faves!
Maviyakuku
Master legerdemain.
Clockworkdancerobot
A gem of a person.
barbarian818
This shot makes him look like Cohen the Barbarian and that's great!
Pwnzistor
At first I thought you meant to see Conan the Barbarian and I was like "what"? But then I was like oh, Terry Pratchett
lackinglife
If I recall right Houdini did a ton of debunking of the occultist. He even gave his wife a code word in case an occultist came to her after he died. None of the ones who tried ever knew it.
TheSimpleDude
it was "Rosabelle believe"
mikeatike
And her name was Bess, so thats kinda funny.
IWantedOneOfThoseLongUsernamesTooSoIGotOne
The million-dollar challenge was an incredibly powerful tool, because for those brave (or self-deluded enough) to try for it, he always, always disproved the claim. And he did it with ample evidence to show people without a grounding in magic, or science, or even critical thinking, exactly how he had disproved it.
We also owe a debt to Johnny Carson for having Randi on his show many times to expose frauds like Uri Geller.
Dannyalcatraz
Don’t forget that Carson was also a bit of an amateur stage magician, so he probably had a bit of skepticism and a trained eye before he started inviting Randi on the show.
IOW, Uri was flanked by TWO people who could expose him when Randi was there.
GiganticBaby
It used to be my goto argument when I’d get into debates IRL when discussing ESP and faith healing. "You should tell your faith healing aunt to go collect Randi’s million". Never worked because Randi was actually the scam artist preventing honest psykers from healing the world. He was obviously a big pharma stooge. Such hot takes made me learn to stop engaging in debates.
IWantedOneOfThoseLongUsernamesTooSoIGotOne
Yeah, the frauds and grifters always had a million reasons they couldn't or wouldn't try for the million. It's a shame that the people being taken in by said frauds would also leap to the frauds' defense.
tinydog
A giant of reason.
Whiskeyjelly
He would absolutely despise current events and the astounding disregard for science.
IWantedOneOfThoseLongUsernamesTooSoIGotOne
To a great extent, certainly. That said, he was publicly a climate change denier, unless he changed his mind before he died. I think that view probably came from the more heavily libertarian wing of the skeptic movement.
IWantedOneOfThoseLongUsernamesTooSoIGotOne
For the record, not trying to say he was shitty or anti-science or anything, just, well, like every other human, he had his foibles.
Dagordae
IIRC his skepticism was over the extent of human influence rather than full denial.
MarkoffChaney
Amazing Randi was a great man. Uri Geller really hated him for exposing his tricks.
NotThisGuyAgain
I rarely take schadenfreude, but watching Uri steam at Randi was fun.
Heelcat70
I always wondered if "Uri" was short for "Urine."
rbudrick
Uri, as far as I've ever seen him mentioned, is kind of a dick. Never really mentioned for his act, just for being a dick.
SquashDemon
As a Randi fan and a Pokemon fan, FUCK uri geller
DaftTechno
He apparently apologized and recanted a few years ago, at least for the Pokemon thing. https://www.polygon.com/2020/11/30/21726492/pokemon-nintendo-lawsuit-uri-geller-kadabra-apology/
coughingintensifies
I’m thinking of one of the Abra’s evolutions right now, but I’m not sure if I got the right reference.
Also: I like illusionists. Just don’t claim you have special powers for real. Then you’re a charlatan.
Dagordae
Kadabra. Japanese name ‘Yungeller’, so not really subtle and I can’t really blame him for suing. It’s kind of fucked to copy someone’s likeness without permission, even if Geller is a massive tool about it.
It’s why Kadabra was booted out of the TCG for 20some years.
coughingintensifies
No way! Thanks for clarifying.
SquashDemon
Personally, I would view it as an homage instead of being a massive cunt about it, but that's just me.
Dagordae
When your image is also your primary job and source of income I would imagine you would be rather less sanguine over a company stealing it and making gobs of money off of it. It’s generally considered polite to offer someone money if you are making money off of them. Also, you know, legally necessary to ask permission.
ChazzK
Well, obviously, that's because you're not a massive cunt!