Denialism

Month: October 2008

  • On the Nature of the Cyberselfish

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    Chris
    in

    In reading a law review last week, I saw a footnote to a booked called Cyberselfish, A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High-Tech. Intrigued, I purchased it immediately and have been reading it the law few nights. The author, Paulina Borsook, wrote for Wired and yet was shocked by some of the…

  • Selling to the Poors

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    Chris
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    Libertarians hold dear the idea of the uberman consumer, the hyperrational, fully formed autonomous being that springs from the womb to take good decisions in the marketplace. But when one reads marketing literature, a different consumer is encountered. Often this consumer is an object to be manipulated; one who holds totally irrational ideas that must…

  • Marketing, Autonomy, and Dignity

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    Chris
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    In years as working as a privacy advocate, I developed the theme that the private sector, particularly marketing companies, was an equal threat to information privacy as the government. After all, the largest providers of personal information to the government now are big marketing companies, like Acxiom and Choicepoint. At a more base level, I…

  • The Problems of Political Spam

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    Chris
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    There are many problems with political spam email. Perhaps the most well known one is that Congress, in passing the CAN-SPAM Act, decided to exempt political messages from any forms of legal accountability. And so the only practical limit on political spam is the public’s willingness to shame candidates. Here’s an example worth shaming, sent…

  • The ethics of blog anonymity

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    MarkH
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    I took on the ScienceOnline09 anonymity panel because I thought it might be interesting, but the conversation that has developed has turned this into a much deeper issue than I had anticipated. I’m stepping into a big, brown pile of ethics here, and hopefully Janet won’t make too much fun of me. Abel over at…

  • My irony meter just exploded

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    MarkH
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    How stupid do you have to be for Jenny McCarthy to legitimately toss the epithet back at you? This question may seem unanswerable, but in this case, McCarthy may have gotten it half right regarding Dennis Leary. The headline at MSNBC delcares: McCarthy calls Leary ‘obviously stupid’ I don’t know much about Leary, but like…

  • Open letter to the American people

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    MarkH
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    My Fellow Americans, In a very short time, you will be given the chance to exercise one of the greatest and gravest responsibilities for citizens of the world’s most successful democracy. On that day, you will be choosing between two candidates, both tireless public servants whose personal stories show our nation’s ability to nurture the…

  • Don’t Let Him Defecate!

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    MarkH
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    This will be Orac’s new favorite show, perhaps the best reality show ever made. Meet Shirley Ghostman. The UK’s premier psychic who is mounting a search for the UK’s next psychic superstar. Watch his students cry as he channels Lady Di! Watch as he brings forth a evil serial killer in the presence of his…

  • So what’s the good news?

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    MarkH
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    This thread needed to be moved up for obvious reasons. Have at it. –PalMD I’ve been writing quite a bit about “questionable” illnesses, shameless quacks and the like, but there are reasons that people seek out odd diagnoses and cult doctors. They feel crappy, and they haven’t yet found someone who can make them feel…

  • Berkeley’s New Monument to Itself [Updated]

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    by

    Chris
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    So, here it is. Titled “Berkeley’s Big People,” it is installed along I-80, so those of you driving north of San Francisco will probably see it, as it is 30 feet tall and visible from a mile away. Given the landscape of “free speech,” it would have been much more appropriate to have erected a…