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Tom Bethell
| Style over substance |
 |
| Popular |
| —Original cover of the sciencePIG[1] |
Tom Bethell is a senior editor atAmerican Spectator, "media fellow" at the Hoover Institution, and purveyor of just about every brand ofwingnutpseudoscience you can name.
His ultimateanti-science manifesto is thePolitically Incorrect Guide to Science (PIGS), a book-length exudation promotingintelligent design,AIDS denial,stem cell myths,anti-environmentalism (mostly concentrating onglobal warmingdenial, the classicDDT andRachel Carsoncanards, thecrank version ofradiation hormesis, and claiming thatendangered species aren't really endangered), andcancerquackery. The book is exceptional in that one could easily use the thing as a whole as well as each individual chapter to play some form of crank bingo or askeptical drinking game (if you really hate your liver). Many classic rhetorical gambits make an appearance:Science was wrong before, theGalileo gambit, theEvil Liberal Science Conspiracy, "suppression" ofcrankery "innovative" and "politically incorrect" ideas,science as asecular religion, theGish Gallop, etc. The unifying theme is Bethell'sconspiratorial perspective in whichthe scientific establishment is constantly sidelining"politically incorrect" dissent in order for scientists to prop upliberal ideology and make off with mountains of grant money.
Each topic covered also includes all the relevantgreatest hits. Onevolution, for example, all the old chestnuts are there: Notransitional fossils,irreducible complexity,microevolution notmacroevolution,Karl Popper's declaration of the theory asunfalsifiable, etc. If ye shall know them by their citations, it's predictable fare; Bethell's "qualified experts" include the usual suspects at theDiscovery Institute (Dembski,Behe, andWells),Peter Duesberg,S. Fred Singer,Steve McIntyre,Michael Crichton,Roy Spencer, theCompetitive Enterprise Institute, andPetr Beckmann. *catches breath*
Whilerelativity denial doesn't appear in the scienceOINKPIG, it is the topic of Bethell's later bookQuestioningEinstein: Is Relativity Necessary? in which he recycles Beckmann's arguments.[2]
See also[edit]
- Crank magnetism
- List of quotes appealing to authority used by creationists
- Creationist Argument Bingo
- Global Warming Denial Bingo
External links[edit]
- His bullshit
- Some more of his bullshit atAmerican Spectator
- Bethell's articles at the Hoover Institution
- Interview with Bethell atLRC
- The Republican War on Science: Tierney and Bethell, Crooked Timber
- Tom Bethell Cries,PZ Myers
- Relativistic crap from an IDist, Good Math, Bad Math
- The Theory of Relativity: Is It Time to "Teach the Controversy" in America's High Schools?, Brad DeLong
- Tom Bethell and the Romance of Scientific Heresy, by John W. Farrell
- Evolutionblog:Fisking Bethell,The Tautology Objection,More Bethell Bashing,On Cranks and Playbooks,More Nuggets from Town Hall
- Tara Smith debunks the AIDS chapter in the sciencePIG
- Chris Mooney has extensively detailed Bethell's nonsense:
- Review of the sciencePIG inSkeptical Inquirer
- Mooney and Bethell debate onNPR
- Intersection:The Blessing of Amazon.com Reviews,Libertarians v. Bethell?,Bethell Backing Down on Relativity?,Choice Quotes on Global Warming,Choice Quotes on Evolution,Choice Quotes on Science Policy,Bethell Questions Einstein, Not Kidding,Conservative Dustup Over Relativity Denialism,Don't Forget Shakespeare Denialism
References[edit]
- ↑Book cover capture.
- ↑Can We Do Without Relativity?, Bethell inAmerican Spectator
