Anyone who has been reading Scienceblogs knows that the creationists are all in a tizzy over their new movie expelled, which plans to unite the superstar power of Ben Stein with the superscience power of creationism.
My favorite part of the whole thing, based on my appreciation for quality crankery, is the built-in persecution.
You see, it’s not enough to make a movie about the supposed persecution of people like Richard Sternberg (who clearly was not persecuted despite unethical behavior). They have to be persecuted for even coming up with the movie. They have to be persecuted for everything they do, 24 hours a day, because to be a crank, one has to be like Galileo.
Hence we have headlines like:
Hollywood Gets the Message About Suppression of Intelligent Design
New Ben Stein Flick, Expelled, Blows the Whistle on the Darwinist Inquisition. (an Inquisition!)
Can Ben Stein’s Expelled be sued by angry Darwinists?
What Happened to Freedom of Speech?
It’s really amazing the gall of people who promoted a textbook, in which they did a find-and-replace of “creationism” and “Intelligent Design”, who admitted in a federal court that ID is no more scientific than astrology, complain that they are being suppressed for “free speech”. They’re being suppressed because they don’t have any science to back up their claims – just the classic nitpicking of denialists – and because they are liars. It’s just that simple.
This new push for their movie is great stuff though. Classic crankery. Which brings me to my next point. The money behind this silliness is Walt Ruloff’s Premise Media and promotion by Paul Lauer’s Motive Entertainment. So, they’ve gone from Mel “the Jews cause all wars” Gibson, to the DI. Maybe some crank magnetism here? Or just a fondness for those with a persecution complex?
Next they should do a movie on Peter Duesberg. They can call it “Intolerance: The true story of how science can’t stand bullshit.”
Any other suggestions for future titles? Think of your favorite crank, or your favorite denialist topic, and then what Premise Media would title a movie about their crankery.
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