New Telegraph UK "Hit Piece" Sure to Ruffle Twoofer Feathers

[njslim]

In Comments section of SCREW LOOSE CHANGE was post linking to article
in TELEGRAPH (UK) concerning spread of conspiracy theories of one variety
or another and how they influence society. Very interesting.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml

[OldTigerCub]

An article from the Telegraph.co.uk website (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=FF1QJFQXP1Q55QFIQMFCFFOAVCBQ YIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/12/nrfact112.xml&page=1)published January 12 is sure to ruffle the feathers of many twoofers, though the only place I have seen it mentioned as of this posting is at PrisonPlanet.
Damian Thompson has written an expose', of sorts, pointing out the nature and dubious tactics used by conspiracy theorists to promote their agendas and spread disinformation:

Lies, damn lies and 'counterknowledge'
By Damian Thompson
Last Updated: 2:45am GMT 12/01/2008Page 1 of 3

Outright fiction is being peddled as historical and scientific fact, warns Damian Thompson in an extract from his provocative new book

George Bush planned the September 11 attacks. The MMR injection triggers autism in children. The ancient Greeks stole their ideas from Africa. "Creation science" disproves evolution. Homeopathy can defeat the Aids virus.

Do any of these theories sound familiar? Has someone bored you rigid at a dinner party by unveiling one of these "secrets"? If so, it is hardly surprising. In recent years, thousands of bizarre conjectures have been endorsed by leading publishers, taught in universities, plugged in newspapers, quoted by politicians and circulated in cyberspace.

This is counterknowledge: misinformation packaged to look like fact. We are facing a pandemic of credulous thinking. Ideas that once flourished only on the fringes are now taken seriously by educated people in the West, and are wreaking havoc in the developing world.

While Thompson is speaking of CTs in general, he does take direct aim at our buddy Dylan Avery and his Loose Change videos:

Admittedly, no major newspaper or TV station has endorsed a September 11 conspiracy theory. But more than 100 million people have watched a 90-minute documentary, Loose Change, directed by three young New Yorkers who assembled the first cut on a laptop. The result is super-slick: computer-generated planes glide menacingly towards their targets, to the accompaniment of a funky soundtrack; buildings collapse in a comic theatrical sequence. This is one cool movie – and a masterpiece of counterknowledge.

The makers suggest that a missile, not an airliner, hit the Pentagon; that the occupants of Flight 93 were safely evacuated at Cleveland Hopkins airport; that the panicked calls made by the passengers were faked using voice-morphing technology.

The directors make basic errors and play outrageous tricks: quotes from experts and official documents are cherry-picked and truncated. Airline parts are misidentified and pictures cropped in a way that leaves out inconvenient rubble and wreckage. "Expert testimony" is lifted from the American Free Press, a hysterical news service with strong links to the far Right.

And Thompson points out the damage that can come from spreading lies as "truth":

But that is nothing compared to the impact of medical counterknowledge in underdeveloped countries. In northern Nigeria, Islamic leaders have issued a fatwa declaring the polio vaccine to be a US conspiracy to sterilise Muslims: polio has returned to the area, and pilgrims have carried it to Mecca and Yemen. In January 2007, the parents of 24,000 children in Pakistan refused to let health workers vaccinate their children because radical mullahs had told them the same idiotic story.

These incidents cannot be dismissed as examples of medieval superstition: these people are not rejecting life-saving vaccines because they reject modern medicine, but because their leaders are spouting Islamic takes on Western conspiracy theories. Counterknowledge, with its ingrained hostility towards a political, intellectual and scientific elite, appeals to anti-American, anti-Western sentiment in the developing world.

Islamic countries, in particular, have embraced counterknowledge to a remarkable degree. In 2006, the Pew Research Centre asked Muslims in Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan whether Arabs carried out the September 11 attacks. The majority of respondents in each country said no. Indeed, most British Muslims – 56 per cent – also thought that Arabs were innocent. A quarter of British Muslims believe that "the British Government was involved in some way" with the London terrorist bombings of July 7, 2005

It's been a queit news day, but I would expect the "Twoof League"TM to be jumping on this "hit piece" in 3....2....1.....

[njslim]

Here is better link - other one goes to Telegraph news home page

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=AIR1FXAHJ1SNHQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ 0IV0?xml=/news/2008/01/12/nrfact112.xml

[njslim]

Geez Old Tiger Cub - great minds think alike. Posted link to exact same article in
Telegraph....

[OldTigerCub]

Oooops! I see I posted the same topic!:blush:
I'll see if a mod can merge the threads.

[Architect]

I'm a bit worried that you read the Daily Torygraph, lads......

[OldTigerCub]

Geez Old Tiger Cub - great minds think alike. Posted link to exact same article in
Telegraph....

Hehe...you're just faster on the keyboard....LOL....
I put in a request for a moderator to merge the threads.

[Lisa Simpson]

Two, two, two threads in one!

[OldTigerCub]

Two, two, two threads in one!

Dang that was fast!!!!:eek:

[Gravy]

Gee, I wonder where he got the idea that 100 million people have seen Loose Change.

[OldTigerCub]

Gee, I wonder where he got the idea that 100 million people have seen Loose Change.

Probably from the LC site...after all the article is about twoofer disinformation...:p

[njslim]

I'm a bit worried that you read the Daily Torygraph, lads......

Actually read NY POST and watch Fox News - can tell I'm a right wing yahoo...

Found link to Telegraph in Screw Loose Change - thought it interesting enough to post
here.

[Anti-sophist]

I just got finished reading all the articles from Florida about all the school districts bitching and whining about the new evolution-heavy science standards... and several of them passing resolutions that are pro-ID.

And then this. This whole thing has depressed me. People aren't smart.

[OldTigerCub]

I think Thompson nails the motivation of the majority of "celebrity twoofers" with this line:

But Left-wing multiculturalists are not the only guilty ones: entrepreneurs are turning counterknowledge into an industry. Publishing houses pay self-taught archaeologists and pseudo-historians large amounts to turn fragments of fact into saleable stories. Titles are placed in the history sections of bookshops whose claims have been thoroughly demolished – yet the publishers carry on bringing out new editions.

Time and again it boils down to being all about the money....

[Architect]

Actually, if it's in the Torygraph, they're amybe trying to jsut divert attention from Lord Black's little legal problems.....



.....and what a crap conspiracy to defraud his firm that was!

[maccy]

It's actually an excerpt from a book called Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History.

Amazon details:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Counterknowledge-Surrendered-Conspiracy-Theories-Medicine/dp/1843546752/
http://www.amazon.com/Counterknowledge-Damian-Thompson/dp/1843546752/

It looks like quite an interesting book. Damien Thompson has also written a couple of books about apocalyptic Christianity and is editor-in-chief of The Catholic Herald (http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/) (cue an iAmerican rant...). He's got a couple of websites:

http://www.damianthompson.net/
http://www.counterknowledge.com/

[CptColumbo]

Two, two, two threads in one!All....Hail...Hypno...Toad...