Three of Three-Fer, or; In Review: Denialism

Third blog, here. Completing this cycle of triple blog day is my review and endorsement of the book "Denialism" by Michael Specter.

I just finished this book and I give it a rating of "really good" to "great" alternatively.  The book focuses on various areas in which modern science is under attack, and describes in great detail why these attacks are waged from false ground and why these attacks are risking (in some cases) the lives and livelihoods of people all around the world.

At first, I thought the book might end up being about the people usually responsible for hindering science: the evangelical Christian radical right.  I was surprised to find that today, the culprits in many cases are people from the radical left, and that the entire cultures built up around science denialism (for instance, the raging super-industrial econo-cultures that have been built up around "organic" foods and "alternative medicine") are frequently willing to sacrifice the health and well-being of the greater good for their own "image" or sense of false hope.

The problem though, it would seem, is that most denialists don't know that they are in fact denialists.  Most science denialists suffer more from a lack of knowledge, for instance, about the pharmaceutical industry or FDA regulations or MMR vaccinations, than they do from sheer sociopathy or idiocy.  The heartening message I took away from the book: by educating the public objectively, we can shed our new found fear of science and move into the next couple of decades poised to end world hunger, many illnesses, and other social ills that continue to plague human kind.

I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.  If you are a lunatic who get's wet just reading the word "organic", read this book.  If you are a conspiracy theorist who thinks that the government is controlling minds with vaccines, read this book.  If science or the world around you fascinates you, read this book.


This concludes today's three blog adventure.  I got my huge jug of Frank's Red Hot, and I am off to Fort Collins.  What did you all think?  And what book shall I read next?  I will remove the image of the book from the "What I'm Reading" section on the side ASAP, cause it is already driving me crazy.  I feel like I am lying to you all even more than usual.

Tell me what it is.  Love