Skepticism is three things used well: uncertainty, imagination, and curiosity.
You can also use those things poorly and get very confused. Use them well, though, and that's skepticism. There isn't much out there more useful than good skepticism.
Far from giving you license to stand on sidelines and forbid anyone to speak who doesn't meet your criteria or agree with your set of approved facts and mechanisms, skepticism is a tool for expanding and improving on knowledge wherever you find it.
The skeptic is not the enemy of new or alternative ideas, but of the notion that their own understanding has reached its final best form.
Be skeptical that you've got it all down pat, and do something about that. Now you are a skillful skeptic.
