Thread by @SkepticJonGuy

1/🚨A 🧵on how @stkirsch avoids a debate he asked for!! On May 1, 2023, after he'd been ranting on about how no one would debate him, a team of scientists, professors, authors, doctors, med students and researchers offered him a fair debate proposal

2/ Steve didn't want to debate. He wanted to talk privately about #VAERS and excess deaths, despite that our team had thoroughly prepared for those very topics prior to submitting our debate proposal

3/ As you can see from the above screenshots, we notified Steve on May 5 that unless he gave a straight answer, we were going public with the proposal of the debate along with his refusal. His response was to try and disqualify me

4/ for saying bad things about him (I never had, and even if I did, that wouldn't disqualify me). Instead, Steve wanted to have private conversations about excess deaths and VAERS so others could do his research for him. He didn't want to debate

5/ On May 7 we went public with our proposal, along with Steve's refusal

https://twitter.com/karandebate/status/1655320979693015040?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

6/ Steve responded by moving the goalpost, and inventing out of whole cloth an arbitrary h-index requirement for debaters. This was not a requirement prior to our public tweet

7/ In private over the next several days, @KaranDebate continued trying to get Steve to commit to a fair debate. E.g., 👇👇👇

8/ Steve responded publicly by writing a substack article on his terms for a debate. Astute readers will notice what he did here: He took our proposal, kept the parts that were favorable to him, and turned the debate into a Q&A stevekirsch.substack.com/p/want-to-deba…

9/ Steve went pretty silent about our debate after that. In DMs with @sharkzfanz, he claimed he was distracted with "exposing the autism fraud," which is as laughable as it is sad

10/ He then went on a long twitter rant about VAERS reports, which prompted me to write a 🧵on logical fallacies associated with anti-vaxx arguments related to VAERS

https://twitter.com/skepticjonguy/status/1658320428870553601?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

11/ Even though Steve claims he has a team of expert grifters on standby 👇, all he's done is find excuses to avoid a fair debate offer. And many of these same grifters and misinformation pushers have been tagged multiple times with this same offer, so there's really no excuse

12/ We shouldn't be surprised either. As @dr_jon_l pointed out, Steve has run from more debates than he's offered

https://twitter.com/dr_jon_l/status/1662450732459597825?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

13/ Here are some examples of debates he's run from

https://twitter.com/alastairmca30/status/1650456479978192901?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

14/ He discussed vaccines/autism w/ @MsAmitripped. But out #'d her w/o telling her, then whined about bringing @sjs856 in, he got 2 disregard the burden of proof & rely on anecdotes as evidence; a far cry from a structured debate where evidence counts

https://twitter.com/msamitripped/status/1662946622441922567?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

15/ Even other anti-vax cranks like @realstewpeters have challenged Steve, and he still refuses to debate

https://twitter.com/realstewpeters/status/1616305392501362691?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

16/ Even when he presents a challenge and someone meets it, he refuses to pay up, like when he refused to pay @DrCanuckMD for doing his research for him

https://twitter.com/drcanuckmd/status/1657867341278097408?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

https://twitter.com/drcanuckmd/status/1658258612555517952?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

17/ We do know that when he does debate people, he invariably loses, and then tries to get them fired @AviBittMD youtube.com/live/e1nF2YAn9…

18/ He even lost two debates with our debate organizer @KaranDebate. Due to Steve lying to Karan about providing a recording of the debates, only this one survives rumble.com/v223eew-med-sc…

19/ Steve's debate tactic is this:
1) Demand a debate
2) Claim no 1 will debate him
3) When someone accepts, stall
4) Get distracted (e.g., VAERS, autism)
5) Change the rules midgame
6) Move the goalpost
7) Refuse the debate
8) Claim victory

20/ In his substack, Steve claimed he would accept alternative proposals, and that he is willing to negotiate the terms 👇👇👇

21/ Our original proposal was completely fair to both parties 👇👇👇

https://twitter.com/skepticjonguy/status/1657174143216025600?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

However, Steve kept insisting that his requirements were not being met. So we changed our proposal and met every one of his requests except 1 👇👇👇 debateagreement.tiiny.site

22/ Among other concessions, we agreed to:
Allow multiple ppl to respond to a claim
Allow any claim to be used multiple times
Include an embarrassment clause
Meet his h-index criteria for debaters/moderator
Allow him to ask the questions included in his proposal

23/ The only thing we refused to budge on was his demand that the entire debate be structured as a Q&A. A Q&A is not a debate, as twitter polls-which Steve thinks are reliable evidence-demonstrate

https://twitter.com/sharkzfanz/status/1664376404857982980?s=46&t=Pdy3G6an5egDPAdCpAnLgA

24/ So as it turns out, Steve doesn't want a debate at all. He wants to push an evidence-free anti-vax narrative in Q&A format where he can disregard the burden of proof, JAQoff with meaningless nonsense, rely on anecdotes and quacks as evidence, & Gish gallop his way to victory

25/ Open invitation to @DrAseemMalhotra @DrEliDavid @DrLoupis @ClareCraigPath @PierreKory @MdBreathe @FatEmperor @molsjames