Skeptics misunderstood

It really hit me today, I mentioned to someone that I was a skeptic and their response made me realize that there is a major misconception among some people as to what, exactly, a skeptic is.
When mentioning skepticism I find quite often the responses I receive tend to be about government cover ups and conspiracies, alien abductions and corporate plans for world domination.

Let me try to set the record straight. While I'm sure there are skeptics out there that do indeed think that Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the Kennedy assassination, and that George Bush and a cabal of oil tycoons were the ones that caused 911, those beliefs, in my opinion, have nothing to do with skepticism. I don't know what you'd call these beliefs, but skepticism isn't it.

To me skepticism boils down to one simple question, what's the evidence. Skepticism is simply requiring proof to back up any claim. It's not being a contrarian, or a cynic, those are completely separate things. Believing that the Queen of England is secretly an evil soul sucking reptile doesn't make you a skeptic, it just makes you a nut.

Skepticism isn't questioning everything regardless of the evidence, but questioning everything in pursuit of evidence. It may seem like a small difference, but to me it's as different as night and day.