Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Why We Resist Counterknowledge

Nice article here by Antony Beevor.

It should be the duty of not just every scientist and historian, but also of every writer, publisher, movie-maker, TV producer and ordinary citizen to fight all attempts to exploit the ignorance and gullibility of audiences. Today’s silly conspiracy theory in the West can easily become tomorrow’s article of faith in the world at large. Quite simply, we play with facts at our peril. From selling fiction as truth in movies to peddling the big lies of counter-knowledge is not such a very big step after all.


The column notes Loose Change specifically and also mentions Damian Thompson's Counterknowledge.

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