Talkin’ The Talk
Did you miss Big Talk on WFHB yesterday? No worries: Here’s the link to my interview with Democrat National Convention delegate Cathi Crabtree.
Next week, Bloomington fave Adria Nassim.
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Remember, if you must talk, talk big!
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Bending Over Backwards
On top of all his other sins, both cardinal and venial, D. Trump has ruined politics for me. No matter what happens from here on out, I’ll never again hold a healthy hatred in my heart for a run of the mill Republican.
Honest. America’s Caligula — or, as Samantha Bee has put it, America’s burst appendix — has become so loathsome that any future GOP candidate for any office will appear almost lovable compared to him. What could a Republican do that would make him less appealing than D. Trump? I suppose he’d have to pull a GG Allin on us and fling his feces at the crowd during his stump speeches. Then we could say, Well, at least Trump didn’t do that.
I hate to admit this but it’s come to the point where I now feel a sort of fuzzy nostalgia for the likes of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. I mean, I used to detest them. Now they’re like avuncular high school principals who I’d still do my best to avoid in the halls but, if forced to face one, I’d at least be civil. And then, several years later, over beers and a fatty with some old HS chums, we’d admit, Hey, y’know, old man so-and-so wasn’t so bad after all.
That’s how far down D. Trump has set the political odium bar.
How Low Can You Go?
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Silenced, Sort Of
So, anti-GMO and anti-vaxxer ideologues have succeeded in getting the NeuroLogica blog suspended from Facebook.
It seems scads of magic-believing, science-denying eye-rollers complained that Steven Novella, author of the fact-based medical blog, was a meanie because he — horrors — had the gall to counter their nonsensical arguments about the subjects to which they’ve dedicated their lives but, sadly, know next to nothing about.
Novella
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Novella’s a neurologist who has specialized in maladies like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and myasthenia gravis. That alone doesn’t mean his views on any other topics should carry weight — just as Dr. Ben Carson’s expertise in brain surgery didn’t make him qualified to be President of the Untied States — but Novella has over the years built a rep as a leader in the skeptic movement through his thoughtful, well-researched pieces on trends in know-nothingness. He’s a professor at Yale University’s School of Medicine. He’s director of the James Randi Educational Foundation‘s Science-Based Medicine operation and is a Fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He teaches two Great Courses: Medical Myths, Lies, and Half Truths: What We Think We Know May Be Hurting Us and Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills.
Natch, quacks like Drs. Joseph Mercola and Mehmet Oz think he’s Satan incarnate. Novella’s been sued by internist and dermatologist Edward Tobinik for debunking Tobonik’s use of peri-spinal etanercept injections to treat back pain and neurological conditions. A judge threw Tobinik’s suit out last September.
NeuroLogica itself remains open for business. It’s only the blog’s FB page that’s been given a 30-day time-out. Novella will continue to rant on NeuroLogica against silliness like homeopathy, AIDS denialism, near-death experience, intelligent design, and the avalanche of conspiracy theories that social media have fostered these last ten or so years, so that’s good.
What’s bad is the fetishistic democratization of social media that can allow large numbers of people to silence voices of reason. It’s the kind of thinking that has brought us the likes of D. Trump.
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