Difference between revisions of "Denialism"
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*The American birthplace and citizenship of [[Barack Obama]] | *The American birthplace and citizenship of [[Barack Obama]] | ||
*[[heliocentrism]] and Einstein's theory of [[relativity]] | *[[heliocentrism]] and Einstein's theory of [[relativity]] | ||
| + | *That various comestibles such as [[Aspartame]] are either harmless or nearly harmless. | ||
| + | *That [[Vaccine_hysteria|vaccination does not cause autism and other diseases]]. | ||
Denialism has at times been a tool of national policy in some places, including [[Lysenkoism]] in the Soviet Union (denial of Mendelian genetics), the defeat of the Kyoto global warming treaty and requirements for abstinence-only sex education in the United States, the [[Turkey|Turkish]] government's denial of the Armenian Genocide, and the attempted suppression of relativity as "Jewish science" in Nazi Germany. | Denialism has at times been a tool of national policy in some places, including [[Lysenkoism]] in the Soviet Union (denial of Mendelian genetics), the defeat of the Kyoto global warming treaty and requirements for abstinence-only sex education in the United States, the [[Turkey|Turkish]] government's denial of the Armenian Genocide, and the attempted suppression of relativity as "Jewish science" in Nazi Germany. | ||
Revision as of 08:41, 9 July 2009
| Not just a river in Egypt Denialism |
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| Alternative facts |
| ♫ We're not listening ♫ |
Denialism is a methodologic school of Woo. It is the art of denying a well-evidenced fact in an authoritative way, despite lack of any empirically acceptable counter-evidence.
Denialists tend to have wide variety of targets from the scientific to the political. The Hoofnagle boys at Denialism Blog on scienceblogs.com have described (using their "Denialists' Deck of Cards" series), how their tactics are remarkably similar. They use a witches brew of half-truths, sob stories[1], conspiracy theories and public relations (or spin) to try to force the public to ignore an important issue. Popular denialist targets include:
- The HIV/AIDS connection (see Peter Duesberg and HIV denial)
- The Holocaust and other genocides (particularly the Rape of Nanking and the Armenian Genocide)
- The efficacy and safety of vaccination (and modern evidence-based medicine in general)
- The existence of Evolution (generally conflated with Big Bang cosmology and abiogenesis by deniers)
- The constitutional basis for the separation of church and state in the United States
- The legal requirement to pay income tax (again, in the U.S.)
- The existence of global warming by invocation of various conspiracy theories
- Ecological carrying capacity and overpopulation[2]
- Health hazards of some consumer products, most notably cigarette smoking
- The moon landings during the 1960s-70s
- The Warren Commission report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy
- Christian Science believes diseases can be healed by denying they exist.
- Denial that oil is a finite resource, and advocacy for explanations of oil formation such as abiogenesis in which oil is continually replenished[3]
- The American birthplace and citizenship of Barack Obama
- heliocentrism and Einstein's theory of relativity
- That various comestibles such as Aspartame are either harmless or nearly harmless.
- That vaccination does not cause autism and other diseases.
Denialism has at times been a tool of national policy in some places, including Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union (denial of Mendelian genetics), the defeat of the Kyoto global warming treaty and requirements for abstinence-only sex education in the United States, the Turkish government's denial of the Armenian Genocide, and the attempted suppression of relativity as "Jewish science" in Nazi Germany.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ (generally about the impending impoverishment of multimillion dollar companies, but often involving stories about how brown people/insert_other_religion_heres/small independent artists are going to steal our money, steal our identities, steal our country, steal our dogs and rape our women)
- ↑ This form of denialism is found in the "there are no limits to growth" belief popular among a range of fringe ideologies from libertarians, to communists, to Lyndon LaRouche), but there are also legitimate counter-arguments that carrying capacity can be increased through technology, including the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and modern improvements in agriculture; these are also denied by those on the opposite extreme who propose a sustainable world human population at perhaps 1/10th or less of current numbers.
- ↑ The term "peak oil denialism" is also thrown about by peak oil proponents, who conflate the numerous beliefs and predictions of impending doom surrounding peak oil with oil being a finite resource; yet the latter is true, the former are legitimate subjects for debate and skepticism.