The role reversal of the sceptic.

These days a “sceptic” has come to mean someone who bases their views on the evidence – particularly in the area of climate. In other words, largely the philosophy that (used to) prevail(ed) in science.
And I so, I suppose the extreme opposite would be a “group-thinker”, a “believer”: someone who never has an original thought nor has their own view, who cannot or will not understand the evidence or understand how to interpret it, but instead gets through life by just citing or assuming the views of others.
But when I was a lad … wasn’t a sceptic was someone who was … sceptical – even pessimistic to which the opposite used to be an “optimist”.
So isn’t it ironic, that these days it is the sceptics who are the optimists … that mother nature can do pretty well by herself with little or no help from humans and the opposite of sceptics  are the pessimists … always believing the world is going to get worse.