I mentioned before that Michael Medved was joining the Discovery Institute, and now Amanda comments:
I love the move, because it’s so transparent. The weak claims to be an institution dedicated to scientific research fall away; Medved is no scientist, just a dedicated culture war soldier. Which of course means that the Discovery Institute is less interested in discovery than in squelching any perceived threat to the cultural dominance of white Christians of a fundamentalist stripe. Medved no doubt was hired because of his willingness to lie, deceive, conceal, and distract from any realities that clash with his and the Discovery Institute’s culture war goals.
I agree — it’s an interesting indicator of the Discovery Institute’s future direction. Science is a dead-end for them, but appealing to the worst aspects of right-wing culture is a growth industry. It also lines up well with the direction taken in the Expelled movie: no honest content, but much rabid huffing and puffing. I will be looking forward to Medved’s review of that movie, although I suspect I could write it right now. With my eyes closed. In crayon. While drunk.
Amanda also points out something appalling: Michael Medved, slavery denialist.
He’s going to fit in so well at the DI.
The link to “Amanda Comments” just circles back to this blog.
I’m surprised you weren’t already aware of Medved’s defense of America’s role in slavery.
Slavery ended because western civilization decided it was repugnant, and wiped it out over the objections of pretty much everybody else.
To give credit where credit is due, the country that really led the effort to eradicate slavery was Great Britain. They fought the Arab slave traders on the high seas at considerable cost, long before the rest of the world even considered the moral issue. Other European powers joined in about a century after the Brits started it, and the USA did its part, wiping out slavery in the CSA, and then joining in the campaign to eradicate it globally.
Today, slavery is at least nominally illegal everywhere in the world. The last country to outlaw it was Saudi Arabia, in 1960.
-jcr
It’s no different than having Stein monotonously drone on about “suppression” of the next big thing in science, though, which is virtually all that the DI has ever done in actuality. Medved understands as much about science as Stein and Dembski do, yet he can yammer on about how evil it is that Meyer’s crap paper isn’t accorded honors, and Sternberg isn’t lauded for his ‘courage’ in giving the paper to hand-picked liars for “peer review”.
Sure, the pretense to be interested in science has pretty much ended, but the caterwauling about how they were thwarted in their aims at promoting openness in science has not. Medved and Stein fit right in there, not because they have any understanding about the issues they comment about, but because they will say anything, while being heedless of truth.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
jcr wrote; “Today, slavery is at least nominally illegal everywhere in the world. The last country to outlaw it was Saudi Arabia, in 1960.”
Nope. That was Niger in 2003. In fact four other countries postdated Saudi Arabia on abolition, including Yemen, UAE, Oman and Mauritania.
FYI
Ya know, it’s a shame. Medved and his outlandish stories prolly coulda saved the Weekly World News from going outta business.
Actually, based on the excerpts at Pandagon, Medved seems to be more a slavery apologist than denialist, which is even worse, IMHO.
Perhaps Ed Anger should start working for DI.
So, more and more, the DI is dropping the pretense of being a scientific organization in favor of being a religious organization. It’s all very funny, of course, but will it really be a detriment to them in the eyes of most of the country? That’s what I have to wonder.
Do not question Michael Medved. Do not question Michael Medved.
Aw c’mon, it is just their job. Everyone has to eat. The DI will fit in with Fox news, the various neocon doublethink tanks, and the fleet of wingnut websites. They were all about propaganda and now it is just a little more explicit.
If anything, they will probably pick up more financing now that they aren’t even pretending to do pseudoscience. Goebbels, said it years ago. Lie big and lie often.
And remember, everyone. The DI is waging this culture war against materialism because we’re the immoral ones. Un-fricken-believable.
From Sadly, no!
– Medved
10,000 years ago? Looks like he’s going to have to revise his own appalling grasp of history a little bit more before truly fitting into the DI
Mitt Medved (Lamanite denialist and cultural hero du jour).
I’m guessing one person who really appreciates Michael Medved’s installation as a Senior Fellow is fellow Fellow Nancy Pearcey, since Medved’s presence enhances her intellectual profile by several orders of magnitude.
Given the stunning lack of historical scholarship in Medved’s slavery piece stands as proof that he belongs in the Discovery Institute. Crummy, disingenuous science meets crummy disingenuous history.
Every time I Medved on TV I feel like I need to go and take a shower to wash all the smarm and BS off.
Every time I see Medved…
There, I fixed it.
Which of course means that the Discovery Institute is less interested in discovery than in squelching any perceived threat to the cultural dominance of white Christians of a fundamentalist stripe.
Uh, Medved is Jewish (ref: his Wikipedia bio). Of course Amanda has never let inconvenient facts stand in the way of a good rant.
Which is not to defend Medved, but to point out that there’s enough reason to dislike him without making stuff up.
Uh, AnthonyH that quote by Amanda does not imply that Medved himself is a Christian. If there is any implication to Medved it is that he is being used by the DI to further their goals. The referent was to the DI and they are indeed in the business of “squelching any perceived threat to the cultural dominance of white Christians of a fundamentalist stripe.”
Please try to read for comprehension.
Mitt Medved (Lamanite denialist and cultural hero du jour).
Michael Medved, slavery apologist and Ben Stein, Nixon speechwriter.
I think it’s called scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Is this the best they can do?
Medved no doubt was hired because of his willingness to lie, deceive, conceal, and distract from any realities that clash with his and the Discovery Institute’s culture war goals.
Well, sure. But there’s a thousand interchangeable wingnuts in America who fit that description. I think the DI liked Medved partly because he’s a ‘celebrity’ (albeit C or D-list), but mostly because his Jewishness enables the DI to pretend that they aren’t really an advocacy group for Christian dominionists. They just found a Jewish man who was happy to shill for rightwing Christian fundamentalist interests. So he’s a token, basically.
Are you saying they somehow reintroduced it after independence?
(Incidentally, slavery was technically on the books in Mississippi till 1995, when the long-forgotten law was rediscovered and immediately abolished.)
Are you saying they somehow reintroduced it after independence?
(Incidentally, slavery was technically on the books in Mississippi till 1995, when the long-forgotten law was rediscovered and immediately abolished.)
David Marjanovic wrote; “Are you saying they somehow reintroduced it after independence?”
I suppose, like Mauritania, Niger is a bit like your example in Mississippi. The French in both countries abolished slave trade long before 1960 but not slave ownership. Depending on who you beleive, there was no criminal offense for slavery in Niger until three years ago, you just couldn’t sell another human into slavery. It wasn’t until 2003 that Niger (1980 for Mauritania) formally criminalized owning another human, though it is still practiced. So in one sense, Niger and Mauritania had abolished slavery before Saudi Arabia, but in practice it was not illegal until long after. In any event, Oman, Yemen and OAE all post dated Saudi Arabia.
Hovind crushed!
I am stunned that an argument as vapid as “slavery was ok because it helped the slaves” could ever be made.
As an experiment we could lock Medved in a small metal box, “for his protection” and state that if it weren’t for his being locked away in said box, he would be less safe. So he’s better off in the box.
Quick, someone get to Home Depot. We’ve got a box to build.
Um, Medved is nothing more than a movie reviewer, an not a very good one. Why should anyone give a tinker’s damn about what he writes about anything? Apparently, this thing with the Disco Institute is just another gig for him.
[cough] Ahem. Wow. To give credit where credit is due, the country that did the most to scale-up Atlantic slave trading was Great Britain…