Denialism

Author: MarkH

  • Crank HOWTO

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    MarkH
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    Who wants to know how to be an effective crank? Well, I’ve outlined what I think are the critical components of successful crankiness. Ideally, this will serve as a guide to those of you who want to come up with a stupid idea, and then defend it against all evidence to the contrary. Here’s how…

  • A question for Luskin III

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    Gosh, they just can’t accept that no reputable science department wants an IDer around. They continue to push this academic freedom issue, when it’s perfectly acceptable to consider an applicant’s ideas when they are pursued intramurally, and can’t quite decide whether they want to make it a religious discrimination issue – risking admitting that ID…

  • Colony Collapse Disorder Update

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    From Salon. Conspiracy Factory has a good overview. Sounds like it wasn’t anything sinister other than weird winter weather.

  • 9/11 with office supplies

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    You remember when that creationist thought a can of peanut butter disproved evolution? If you thought that was funny, you got to start watching some troofer videos. Screw Loose Change found this wonderful entry: I realize this is low hanging fruit. But it was too funny to ignore.

  • Egnor vs. Bell

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    The latest entry in the Darwinism = eugenics nonsense comes from the crank Michael Egnor. Once again, as a Charlottesvillian I feel the cranks are invading my home turf. About a mile away from me is this sign: It reads:

  • One month of denialism

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    MarkH
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    We’ve been on for one month now. It was a pretty good start. We got about 110k pageviews, about 54k visitors, 100 entries and 1050 comments on those entries. We’ve gone through what makes a denialist argument, what makes a crank, 3 major categories of denialists (there are many more) and almost a whole deck…

  • LOL Creationists III

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    Ok, here is my final thread on LOL creationists (see the previous entries). Anti-evolution brings us some entries, this is my favorite (below the fold – it’s a tad dirty).

  • Cranks are rarely bothered by other cranks

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    It’s in the nature of cranks and denialists not to really object to other forms of crankery, as long as the other crank or denialist is also sowing doubt about the same scientific theory. This fits in with proof 295,232 that intelligent design isn’t a science. Witness an IDer who really loves the Creation Museum.…

  • Thimerosal goes on trial

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    Slate has coverage of the impending trial against vaccine makers over the inclusion of thimerosal – a mercury containing preservative agent – in childhood vaccines. Luckily, the writers at Slate have done their homework. They present a laundry-list of denialist tactics from the anti-vax crackpots.

  • A scientific study of overvalued ideas

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    MarkH
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    Corpus Callosum points us to a review in science entitled Childhood Origins of Adult Resistance to Science (Chris at mixing memory also has coverage of the article). This is a perfect study to emphasize a critical aspect of denialism and crankery, that is, the central role the overvalued idea plays in the evolution of a…