PZ Myers is a Dickhead

I am largely a fan of Pharyngula, but lately, PZ has been letting his leftardation overcome his rationality over the Climategate issue. Most of the time, Myers sticks to what he does best--biology--and smacks the shit out of creationists which I applaud. But then, he becomes a complete moron when he lumps freethinkers like myself or James Randi in with these creationists because we exhibit skepticism over claims of anthropogenic global warming or AGW. PZ Myers is an idiot.

Pat Michaels has a good column in the WSJ on the Climategate issue here. The scandal of Climategate is the fact that scientists have worked to exclude contrary information, marginalize critics, manipulate data, destroy data, and refuse to make data public even to go so far as to commit criminal offenses in doing this. This is a serious matter regardless of what your politics may be. PZ doesn't get this, but his recent flurry of propaganda on his blog indicates that he understands that Climategate is a serious blow to the science of AGW. He is like a flailing punch drunk retarded kid striking wildly in hopes of landing a blow on his opponent. Maybe he should stop for a bit and reflect on the possibility that he is biased and could have it totally wrong.

The reason libertarians like myself are skeptical on scientific claims is because we have seen decades of scientific misrepresentation to justify all sorts of government tomfuckery from exaggerated fears of what marijuana will do to that hole in the ozone layer to SARS to the current swine flu epidemic. When a politician like Al Gore comes along and makes a movie claiming the planet will turn into a fireball unless we stop driving cars and using lightbulbs and buy carbon credits from his pollution market schemes, libertarians immediately put on the skeptic glasses. This is because we have witnessed this same song and dance so many times before. Where is PZ when we need some true scientific debunking?

The reality is that politics corrupts science. Does anyone really think that these leftard scientists are going to report contrary findings or ever admit they have it wrong on AGW? Fuck no. This is because they refuse to admit even the possibility that they might have it wrong, or their fears are unfounded. It is scientific hubris, and PZ has a really bad case of it.

I am willing to admit the AGW people might have it right. I'm willing to admit that Al Gore might have it right. But we must also remember that Gore sounded the alarm bells on ozone depletion back in the day by citing blind fish in Patagonia as evidence that we were destroying the ozone layer. Whatever happened to that issue? Why do we not give a shit now when we cared so much back then?

Science is supposed to be about the facts, but we know that facts can be distorted. We like to think we have an unbiased viewpoint on things. But if science tells us anything, it is that we are rarely free of either prejudice or error. The antidote to those prejudices and errors is peer review and multiple perspectives. Let the debate ensue and believe that the truth will emerge as it must. The sad thing is that some ugly truth has emerged about a group of climate scientists, and PZ can't deal with it except to belittle and berate any and all who don't share his political outlook. Peer review seems to count only when the peers agree with what we think.

Climategate might be much ado about nothing, or it might point to one thing we do know. The scientists involved have been less than forthcoming with their data, and they have done little to answer their critics. This is not science. This is a scientific magisterium that attempts to lord knowledge over lesser mortals and to leave the science to the experts. You are simply too stupid to think for yourselves, so we will let the scientists do the thinking for us. I can see why PZ would enjoy this new scientific method. Truth is not what is, but what PZ says it is.

PZ Myers is a dickhead. If the best he can do is to deride skepticism as fundamentalism and urge us to err on the side of Bolshevism, he needs to quit calling himself a scientist and take the title of polemicist. The difference between science and empirical skepticism is that in empirical skepticism no one gets a pass because they have "Ph.D." after their name, and no debates are ever settled. Truth is not a destination but a process requiring both investigation but also the humility to admit our limitations and our biases. This is what separates freethinkers from fundamentalists and Catholics. I don't know when it happened, but PZ Myers ceased being a freethinker a long time ago. The only antidote will be abject humiliation, and I hope he gets it. Nothing tames the ego more than coming to the realization that you had it wrong, and the facts are not on your side after all.

POSTSCRIPT
Thaddeus Russell has an interesting article here where he details how Al Gore uses religion in his global warming crusade. Where is PZ on this shit? The man castigates Randi for his skepticism deriding it as being on par with fundamentalism but says not a word about Al Gore's fundie proselytizing. The man even has a slide show where he quotes Scripture. Where are you, PZ?

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