Galileo's Middle Finger: Persecuting Scientists Whose Findings Are Seen As Politically Incorrect

[HuckleB]

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/persecution-of-scientists-whose-findings-are-perceived-as-politically-incorrect/#more-40844

"It dates back at least to Galileo. A scientist finds evidence that contradicts a cherished popular belief. Instead of a rational examination of his evidence, he is subjected to vicious personal attacks. Alice Dreger examines the phenomenon in her book Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science. She is eminently qualified to do so. She is a professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics, a historian, a gifted writer, an activist for patient rights, and an indefatigable investigative journalist who has herself been a victim of the kind of persecution she describes.

The histories she recounts are horrifying. She gives example after example of activists using lies and personal attacks to suppress evidence they don’t like. She reveals dirty linen in the most unexpected places.

...

A pattern repeats itself. The scientist’s message is distorted; critics often don’t bother to read the book or the article in question, but are content to rely on someone else’s garbled misinterpretation. They are not angry about what the scientist actually said, but about what they thinkhe or she said. When E. O. Wilson wrote his book Sociobiology, his intent was to help humans understand their own nature. His message was misrepresented as an attempt to exonerate people from responsibility for crimes or social problems, and even as supporting “the eugenics policies which led to the establishment of gas chambers in Nazi Germany.” Hatred of Wilson escalated to the point that a group of his detractors rushed onstage and doused him with a pitcher of water at a scientific conference.

...

Good people with the best intentions can do bad things. Dreger concludes that we need both scholars and activists; we need people pushing for truth and for justice if we’re going to get both right. She is fair to both sides: she exposes the sins of activists and the sins of scientists and scientific institutions. Highly respected thinkers like Jared Diamond, Edward O. Wilson, Elizabeth Loftus, and Steven Pinker have endorsed the book. Diamond says it would be “this year’s most gripping novel” except that her stories are true. Wilson says she “reveals the shocking extent to which some disciplines have been infested by mountebanks, poseurs and even worse, political activists who put ideology ahead of science.” A good read, valuable information, a cautionary tale, and plenty of food for thought."

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The reviewer gives some amazing examples of the persecution in the title. I can't wait to read this one. It looks good.

[proverbialwisdom]

1. FYI.

Read the 1-star reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Galileos-Middle-Finger-Heretics-Activists/product-reviews/1594206082/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=1

Related, extensively covered in book: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170124/
"The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age" by Alice D. Dreger

Oh my, only ONE PAGE (p171) on this according to the book's Index via Amazon's "Look Inside!" and NOTHING on David L. Lewis?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/discredited-vaccine-autism/

On November 9, David Lewis of the National Whistleblower's Center in Washington DC published a letter in the BMJ arguing that Wakefield did not commit research fraud. Lewis told Nature that he thinks the combination of public charges and a slow, secretive investigation has left the public not knowing whom to believe and is unfair to the accused researcher. &quot The system) throws people like Andy into a no-man's-land," Lewis says.

More: http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/11/re-how-case-against-mmr-vaccine-was-fixed-0

http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/09/re-how-case-against-mmr-vaccine-was-fixed
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111109/full/479157a.html

12/31/08: http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/08/age-of-autism-awards-2008-galileo-award-dr-andrew-wakefield.html

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/science-for-sale-david-l-lewis-phd/1117301377

Science for Sale: How the US Government Uses Powerful Corporations and Leading Universities to Support Government Policies, Silence Top Scientists, Jeopardize Our Health, and Protect Corporate Profits

by David L. Lewis, Ph.D.

When Speaker Newt Gingrich greeted Dr. David Lewis in his office overlooking the National Mall, he looked at Dr. Lewis and said: “You know you’re going to be fired for this, don’t you?” “I know,” Dr. Lewis replied, “I just hope to stay out of prison.” Gingrich had just read Dr. Lewis’s commentary in Nature, titled “EPA Science: Casualty of Election Politics.” Three years later, and thirty years after Dr. Lewis began working at EPA, he was back in Washington to receive a Science Achievement Award from Administrator Carol Browner for his second article in Nature. By then, EPA had transferred Dr. Lewis to the University of Georgia to await termination—the Agency’s only scientist to ever be lead author on papers published in Nature and Lancet.

The government hires scientists to support its policies; industry hires them to support its business; and universities hire them to bring in grants that are handed out to support government policies and industry practices. Organizations dealing with scientific integrity are designed only to weed out those who commit fraud behind the backs of the institutions where they work. The greatest threat of all is the purposeful corruption of the scientific enterprise by the institutions themselves. The science they create is often only an illusion, designed to deceive; and the scientists they destroy to protect that illusion are often our best. This book is about both, beginning with Dr. Lewis’s experience, and ending with the story of Dr. Andrew Wakefield.

[HuckleB]

2. Thanks for the usual conspiracy theory stuff.

Ah, and it includes the usual anti-vaccine routines. Way to post yet another Age of Autism link in the middle of your usual Gish Gallop silliness, promoting another anti-vaccine crank.

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/dr-google-and-mr-hyde/

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Surely, you jest.

Lewis? See the links from BMJ, Nature, Scientific American.

Blaxill? Princeton, Harvard MBA, founding partner 3LP, author, autism dad: SOLID. Best of all, no agenda but problem solving.
More: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026268802#post50

[HuckleB]

4. No one jests when it comes to anti-vax nonsense.

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2016, 12:01 PM - Edit history (2)

Nor does anyone care. The ludicrous logical fallacies you utilize in order to attempt to con people about these long debunked anti-vaxers doesn't change anything. Clearly, you don't want people to pay attention to the reality. Too bad. David Lewis has been shown to be an ignorant ant-vax promoter, who has tried to push Wakefield's debunked nonsense. The book in the OP exposes the likes of these charlatans. Why would you promote them?