Everything You Know About Columbine Is Wrong

For a few years, I’ve been reading/listening to many skeptical blogs/podcasts. They deal with a range of things but typically it’s a continuum. On the one side are those who look at the paranormal/alternative medicine/pseudoscience. On the other are those who look at religion/religious claims.

The third area that I think is very important, is applying skepticism to political claims and popular historical misconceptions. These are very potent and have consequences that are almost certainly more far-reaching than the paranormal. How many millions were slaughtered in Gulags because of ghosts or UFOs? Alas, these are much harder to cover because in history and politics nobody seems to be able to get rid of their own biases.

Which is why I was so impressed with the latest episode of Skepticality. Here is the blurb:

On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on American society when they carried out their plan to kill as many of their high school classmates as they could. The very word “Columbine” has come to represent a specific brand of unthinkable horror: when children make a calculated decision to murder their teachers and peers.

In the chaos and aftermath of that April day, legends and misinformation quickly proliferated. A great deal of what was reported about Columbine was simply not true.

Author Dave Cullen has spent the last ten years of his journalistic career studying the lives of the residents of Littleton Colorado as they were before, during, and after this shattering event. Cullen’s seminal book on the subject, Columbine, delves deep into the psyches of the killers, the victims, and their families — to set the record straight not only about what really happened on that fateful day, but why. (Download interview: episode #109)

This is undoubtedly one of the best skeptical podcasts I’ve ever listened to. Which might seem a bit funny because it doesn’t go into many of the traditional things associated with skepticism: there was pretty much no mention of fallacies, cognitive biases etc. But I think the interview did something far more important — it gave a firm answer to the question of the role skeptics should play in politics and wider world citizenship. Once people cut their teeth on skepticism 101 (eg. the paranormal), they can make a real change in the world by turning their attention to events that shape the lives of millions. As the Columbine massacre unfortunately did.

The interview is dealt with in a good-natured, thorough and humane way. I found myself thinking of the episode as a kind of ambassador to the world at large for the good skepticism can do in helping people make better decisions. It’s especially good in undermining the stereotype of self-identified skeptics and rationalists as cold and unfeeling. So check it out. It has all the elements of political history in the making that need a dose of skepticism: modern mythmaking, lies circling the earth thrice before the truth is putting on shoes, moral panic, won’t somebody think of the children and the other things that risk further dragging down our world.

In your experience, what are some other non-obvious areas where otherwise reasonable people find it hard to keep away from the Kool-Aid?