I'm trying to find some good class based analysis on the subject. I feel like Matt has spoken about this sort of thing on his vlogs but its kind of hard to search through those to pinpoint a specific talking point.

    • HamManBad [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Why is this thread the first I'm hearing of "woo", and it's in every dang comment?

      • LeninsRage [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Because one is most likely to have encountered it through RationalWiki, which is a nexus of libshittery. According to them the term comes from use by writers in the 90s as a put-down.

        • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          It's not called woo by supporters (at least as far as I'm aware), and I'd guess the name comes from the sound you imagine people make when they're doing "magic" (or maybe the sound ghosts make or something).

        • Florn [they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I've only ever heard it used in a derogatory way, usually for crap like ESP, telepathy, or ghosts.

    • purr [undecided]
      ·
      4 years ago

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6XthQpk8uk&ab_channel=POPSMOKEVEVO

      jk