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RE: Trendy Skepticism : The Badge of The Emotionally Unfit & Intellectually Bankrupt
If someone makes a claim that unicorns exist, then the burden is on them to prove their claim. The person hearing that claim is under no obligation to investigate it, unless they're interested in the subject.
The fact that no one else, in the history of mankind, has produced a real unicorn, is also worth considering.
So when someone makes the unicorn claim, the correct response is "prove it," and if they can't, then the null hypothesis is the only rational one.
Any other approach means we have to accept that leprechauns, Santa, The Easter Bunny, Thor and Zeus are real, which makes no sense at all.
That depends on how much the unicorn observer actually cares whether you believe them.
If I see a unicorn and tell you all about it, my duty to you, if any, has ended.
Truth really doesn't care about where the burden of proof lies. The ability of someone to present evidence or argue a case doesn't affect whether the proposition they propose is true or not. A real truth-seeker is looking for the truth regardless of where the burden of proof lies (though of course, that's not always easy).
You don't have the accept that leprechauns are real; that's kind of the point. Obviously being skeptical doesn't mean that we accept things without any proof. The point of the article was that, you can entertain things without accepting them, and you can consider the probability of the reality of a proposition to be likely or unlikely, without fully accepting or rejecting it.
Have a good one
There is no burden on anyone. If I say to you unicorns are real, you have two choices: unmoved or uninterested, you can ignore the claim and move on with your life. Or, if you are so moved, you can say, prove to me unicorns exist and examine whatever evidence the person might have. Just because someone makes a claim doesn't mean you're obligated to lose your shit about it. That's your ego trying to make itself feel superior.