Friday, August 9, 2013

WUWT has a new primer on how to ignore data and influence people


Anthony Watts has given space to a guest who's written a primer on how to ignore data and influence people.  Anthony could have written it himself.  His blog is a rather good example of how to ignore data and influence people.

  • Ad hominems
  • Make up stuff
  • Publish cartoons by Josh
  • Tell fibs about peer-reviewed papers
  • Appeal to the conservative fear factor
  • Manufacture wild conspiracy theories
and so on.  A few minutes on WUWT and you'd have covered most of the lessons.

In this case, Wotts covers it very well.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for link. I really did laugh at the title when I first read it. I really think that teaching people the meaning of the words "ironic" and "hypocritical" would change the debate significantly (well, assuming that they decided that being ironic or hypocritical was a bad thing).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to say I'm not averse to a bit of ad hom mockery or an appeal to emotion, within limits.

      That's the nature of HotWhopper :D

      (I don't tell fibs and am not one for wild conspiracy theories either.)

      Delete
    2. I'm trying to avoid ad homs and mockery, but I do find it remarkably difficult at times. That you're here playing that role (amongst others) gives me some comfort :-)

      Delete
  2. There was an earlier post linked to an online news site that called Michael Mann a charlatan. So many charlatans at WUWT it's difficult to know where to start point the finger and going "hypocrite" but I think I'd begin with Monckton.

    ReplyDelete

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