Letters to the Editor
mbrysonb
Published Letters: 11 Editor's Choice: 2
-
Other Early Abusers
[Read the article: Charles Krauthammer takes rank hypocrisy to new lows]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dinesh D'Souza, Ken Ham and Rush Limbaugh also got an early start on the political exploitation of pain and suffering with enthusiastic attacks on evolution and secularism: According to them, school shootings are the fault of biologists and atheists.
-
Selective scepticism
[Read the article: Reason to believe: The Cockburn files, Part 2]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are a few things worth saying about how non-experts should deal with this kind of noisy, highly politicized but technical issue. The first is that you have to look for helpful sources, where the contributors really do have some expertise, but are explaining the issue at an accessible level. Realclimate.org is a good starting point for this when it comes to global warming. A short review of some of the basic issues serves as protection against most of the bad arguments disputing the role of GHGs in global warming.
The second is that when one side starts to argue that scientists can't be trusted because they're in a conspiracy to hide the truth, or they're out to get a bigger research grant, it's a pretty bad sign. It puts them in the same category as creationists. The social structure of science is too focused on evidence and where it leads for anything like that to happen. That isn't to say science is infallible-- but if there are powerful arguments undermining a scientific consensus, the consensus collapses. The rewards of getting an important issue right when others are systematically wrong are more than high enough to ensure this.
Third, when you come across denialist arguments, it's often easy to find detailed replies-- and it's rare (vanishingly rare) to find detailed rejoinders to these replies; instead, you find the denialists go on repeating their talking points. Sticking to your talking points works fine in politics, but very poorly in science.
Finally, it's important to understand that there are always a few experts who are contrarians, who occupy opposing positions even after the argument is lost. Sometimes the contrarians are right--but it's very rare. As evidence continues to build and doubts are dispelled one by one, the contrarian view has become untenable. Climate change denial is a well-funded, systematic and selective application of scepticism for political and economic ends. It has a few sincere proponents, many fans who want desperately for climate change to go away, and some well-heeled supporters who are working for selfish, short-term ends.
-
The effect of the defunding myth
[Read the article: The complete myth driving our Iraq "debate"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sadder still is the fact that this myth about defunding prevents Congress from exercising the only authority it has to end the war, a power clearly invested in Congress by the constitution.
-
Certainty
[Read the article: Better to be Hamlet than President George]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mark Twain said the only earthly certainty is oblivion. Death and taxes may also deserve a mention. But Bush's 'certainties' are pathological-- the mythic certainties of the chosen 'decider,' unconcerned about present outcomes because only history can evaluate his arrogant incompetence. I begin to think that only a complete disaster can wake this sleepwalking nation from its absurd fantasies and failing policies. But a disaster that serious will exact a heavy price from all of us.
-
An evil troll
[Read the article: Good riddance to John Howard ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When we arrived in Melbourne on sabbatical early in 2002, Mr. Howard had just won re-election; the key to that victory was an outright lie, that refugees desperate to escape from Afghanistan had thrown their children into the sea in an attempt to blackmail Australian Navy forces into picking them up. The refugees were being held in dreadful conditions in camps outside Australia (those that reached Australian shores were held in camps in Australia)with no way to get out, no recognition that they were indeed legitimate refugees, and targeted for political gain by Mr. Howard, who deliberately appealed to the worst of Australia's xenophobic racism to shore up his coalition-- still a startlingly strong factor in Australian politics. Sadly, like Mr. Bush's electoral successes, Mr. Howard's long dominance over politics in Australia is no accident. Worse, he has been a valuable advisor to our own neo-con ideologue Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Still, it is wonderful to see the evil troll defeated at last.
-
Don't forget Judge Jones
[Read the article: The Kucinich court decision and "judicial activism"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Another example of the same ugly pattern is the conservative treatment of Judge John E. Jones when he ruled against the school board in Dover PA. Despite his conservative bona fides and the clear legal precedents that make the pursuit of religious purposes with public funds in public schools illegal, his decision was decried as judicial activism. Worse, this chorus of 'me too' criticism (in complete disregard of the scientific and legal evidence) led some of the more unhinged on the religious right to threaten Judge Jones and his family.
-
Motivated mistatements
[Read the article: McCain's repeated "slips of the tongue" on Iran and al-Qaida]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sometimes, politically speaking, it's more important to get a falsehood out there, to get it heard, even if you mean to admit it's false and retract later. When something is said so regularly, it's almost always because there's been a deliberate decision to say that. The press has covered perfectly for him, but he's got that simple message out-- they're all in it together, they're all our enemies in the very same way, Sadam, Osama, Iran,...