Neo-Con Twisting of Science Attacked by New Book
Question: What do the following have in common: George W. Bush,
Leon Kass, Milton Friedman, Charles Krauthammer, Francis
Fukuyama, William Kristol, Arthur R. Jensen, Steven Pinker,
Dwight J. Ingle, William B. Shockley, Senator James M. Inhofe,
Frederick Seitz, the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry,
the longevity industry, the tobacco industry, creationism, racist
psychology, chiropractics, and alternative medicine? Answer:
They are all attacked by Dan Agin in his new book JUNK SCIENCE: How
Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us.
In a new book expected to be a political bombshell, Dan Agin,
neuroscientist and editor of a science journal (ScienceWeek),
uses heavy artillery to attack Milton Friedman, Charles
Krauthammer, Francis Fukuyama, Leon Kass, and other conservatives
for twisting science against the public interest to serve
political agendas.
Agin says that during the next thirty years the American public
will suffer from a rampage against reason by special interests in
government, commerce, and the faith industry, and the rampage
has already begun. In the new book, titled JUNK SCIENCE: How
Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us, Agin
offers a stinging condemnation of the constant warping of science
for ideological gain.
A "centrist" who considers himself neither a leftist nor a
rightist, Agin argues from the center that we will pay a heavy
price for the follies of people who consciously twist the
public=B4s understanding of the real world.
Agin separates fact from conveniently "scientific" fiction and
exposes the data faking, reality-ignoring, fear-mongering, and
outright lying that contribute to intentionally manufactured
public ignorance. Many factions twist scientific data to maintain
riches and power, and Agin outs them all in sections devoted to
genetically modified foods, aging, tobacco companies
chiropractics, health care, talk therapy, pollution, warfare,
global warming, religion, embryos, cloning, genes, behavior, and
race.
According to Agin, we already pay a heavy price for many groups=B4
conscious manipulation of the public=B4s understanding of science,
and the purpose of the new book is to arm us with awareness of
manipulations and cut through the fabric of lies to set the
record straight.
JUNK SCIENCE: How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters
Betray Us. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2006. 336 pp.
$24.95, C$33.95. (Publication date: October 3, 2006)
Icarus
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