skeptic wars...

I've been dipping in and out of the skeptics bits and pieces that I follow and feeling a little disheartened. It seems that Sciencepunk gave a talk at one of the skeptics in the pub about how the other skeptics are a bit elitist and might scare off women and non-white blokes. The response to this has been quite a hard lined picking apart of his accusations, which is what skeptics do, to be fair. The problem is, that there seems to be, from the outside, a feeling of the old boy network and they all watch each others' back and laugh at each others' jokes. I felt uncomfortable about a tweet by Crispian Jago the other day about a woman in a bhurka, basically wanting to ridicule her. Not the fact that she might feel opressed or showing any empathy, but wanting to make her a figure of fun. That ain't a good way to get non-skeptics on-side, but it'll certainly attract plenty of BNP voters. The other problem is that all the bloggers appear to be well educated, very confident people who love to have a good argument. Sorry, debate. The targets they generally pick on are deserving of exposure as frauds or deluded morons, but I for one, wouldn't feel comfortable joining in. I suspect I would be ignored because I'm not 'known' and would not want to expose myself to the potential deconstruction of my comments. I'm not trained, nor practised, in the art of public debate and consequently stick to the dark sidelines. This, I suspect, is what Sciencepunk was getting at. Most ordinary folk don't want to join in a public debate involving several high profile bloggers who can talk the hind legs off a donkey and seem to prefer each others' company to that of mere mortals.
It could be said that this is probably how most religions started out. Someone charismatic makes a few speeches that attract a following. They outperform the competition and gain more followers. With followers comes prestige, esteem and, best of all, power. Power to influence and change peoples' minds to that of your own views. Which, for most people, will be views of self-interest. These are all humans, no matter how much they stick to scientific principles and question everything. They are prone to inflated egos and must enjoy being followed and admired by so many. I just wonder how long before we see the Church of Skepticism lead by the chosen few.
Or it may just be that I feel Im not worthy of joining in the debates and it's all my problem. Either way, I don't think I'll be getting too close to the action. Far better to stay in this dark corner !