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Please pardon me as a totally clueless old fudd, but... (Original Post) MarianJack Jan 2014 OP
It is just another stupid internet fad word that needs to go away as soon as possible quinnox Jan 2014 #1
Thanks, quinnox! MarianJack Jan 2014 #3
When people believe stuff that is offbeat treestar Jan 2014 #2
Thanks, treestar! MarianJack Jan 2014 #4
Woo is a term used among skeptical writers to describe pseudoscientific explanations that have snooper2 Jan 2014 #5
Thanks, snooper2! MarianJack Jan 2014 #8
Some liken "woo-woo-woo" to the cheesy sound effects in old sci-fi movies. Eleanors38 Jan 2014 #21
Everything is pseudoscience until it's not whatchamacallit Jan 2014 #22
Glad for you Old Codger Jan 2014 #6
Thanks, Old Codger! MarianJack Jan 2014 #11
"woo" == pseudo-science. bemildred Jan 2014 #7
Science to market BS? MarianJack Jan 2014 #15
Very common these days, a favorite. bemildred Jan 2014 #16
Pseudo-Science. Iggo Jan 2014 #9
Thanks! MarianJack Jan 2014 #13
Thanks! MarianJack Jan 2014 #14
MarianJack, please join me in not giving a flying fuck Greybnk48 Jan 2014 #10
Ok, but I do want to know what I don't give a rat's patoot about! MarianJack Jan 2014 #12
K & R for total ignorance of WOO meow2u3 Jan 2014 #17
Thanks! MarianJack Jan 2014 #19
K&R for you and your wife. NCTraveler Jan 2014 #18
THANK YOU! MarianJack Jan 2014 #20
 

quinnox

(20,600 posts)
1. It is just another stupid internet fad word that needs to go away as soon as possible
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 11:19 AM
Jan 2014

like all the rest eventually do.

treestar

(82,383 posts)
2. When people believe stuff that is offbeat
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 11:20 AM
Jan 2014

Like being against vaccines. Someone made a list in a post yesterday. Included feng shui, stuff like that.

 

snooper2

(30,151 posts)
5. Woo is a term used among skeptical writers to describe pseudoscientific explanations that have
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 11:24 AM
Jan 2014

certain common characteristics.



The term comes from woo-woo, an epithet used in the 1990s by science and skeptical writers to ridicule people who believe or promote such things. This is in turn believed to have come from the onomatopoeia "woooooo!" as a reaction to dimmed lights or magic tricks. The term implies a lack of either intelligence or sincerity on the part of the person or concepts so described.

As a coincidence, the Chinese word "Wū" (巫 means a shaman, usually with magic powers.

Despite the terrible name, it has become quite a popular term. Woo is sometimes synonymous with bullshit, though there are differences. Bullshit is generally just a lie pulled out of wherever, about whatever. Woo is understood specifically as pseudoscience, uses a science-like formula, and attempts to place itself as scientifically, or at least reasonably, supported.

Woo generally contains most of the following characteristics:

A simple idea that purports to be the one answer to many problems (often including diseases)
A "scientific-sounding" reason for how it works, but little to no actual science behind it; for example, quote mines of studies that if bent enough could be described in such a way to support it, outright misapplication of studies, or words that sound scientific but make no sense in the context they are used in
It involves the supernatural and paranormal (not necessarily)
A claim of persecution, usually perpetrated by the government or the pharmaceutical, medical, or scientific community
An invocation of a scientific authority
Prefers to use abundant testimonials over actual scientific research
A claim that scientists are blind to the discovery, despite attempts to alert them
A disdain for objective, randomized experimental controls, especially double-blind testing (which are kind of what makes epidemiology actually, y'know, work)
And, usually, an offer to share the knowledge for a price.



http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Woo

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
21. Some liken "woo-woo-woo" to the cheesy sound effects in old sci-fi movies.
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 12:46 PM
Jan 2014

And appropriated the sound to denote poor scientific practices, fraudulent claims and conspiracy paranoia.

whatchamacallit

(15,558 posts)
22. Everything is pseudoscience until it's not
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 12:47 PM
Jan 2014

"Woo" is vague pejorative that means whatever the user wants it to.

 

Old Codger

(4,205 posts)
6. Glad for you
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 11:26 AM
Jan 2014

That your wife gets frisky, the idiocy involved in the on line here has gone way over the edge... Just put the word and any ways of "spelling" it in my trashcan list...

MarianJack

(10,237 posts)
11. Thanks, Old Codger!
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 11:31 AM
Jan 2014

It's an advantage of having a younger(by a little more than 8 years) and very foxy wife!

PEACE!

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
16. Very common these days, a favorite.
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 11:39 AM
Jan 2014

Whereas 500 years ago one would have appealed to some deity, now one appeals to "objectivty" and "science".

Greybnk48

(10,148 posts)
10. MarianJack, please join me in not giving a flying fuck
Mon Jan 6, 2014, 11:29 AM
Jan 2014

what it is, what it means, or even acknowledging the posts. From this moment on, for me, they don't exist.

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