Mmm…fascism

Jonah Goldberg is thrilled with Vox Day’s endorsement of his new book Liberal Fascism: From Bad Arguments to Baseless Slander (or something along those lines).  So thrilled, in fact, that he sits down for an interview with the World Net Daily columnist himself, where he says:

It’s a response to this jabbering fraction of a man named Tim Noah at Slate who has been insisting for about four years, sight unseen, that I have written what he calls an Ann Coulter book. And by that I mean a bomb-throwing book that sheds heat, not light. Now, I think there’s a place for them and I think there’s more serious argumentation in Ann Coulter’s books than a lot of people on the Left are willing to concede because they don’t want to give her arguments any credence. But at the same time, it is indisputable that Ann is something of a performance artist. She is most useful for entertaining people who already agree with her and for providing ammunition and morale to her side. She does not go into a college lecture hall and persuade very many people who are sitting on the fence on an issue.

I didn’t want to write that kind of book.

If Jonah doesn’t want to be like Ann Coulter, maybe he should stop giving interviews to folks like Vox Day, who’s willful ignorance and moral repugnance I’ve documented before.  I should imagine that Goldberg knows his host’s insane views, Vox certainly doesn’t try to hide them.  Why then does he even give filth such as Vox Day the time of day?

Probably because Goldberg has no freaking idea what fascism is.  He completely misses the fascist leanings inherent in Vox Day’s “Christian Libertarianism”, yet somehow ascribes these leanings to…gays?  The next time Goldberg feels like writing a book on fascism, he should do some more research.  Like looking up the dictionary definition of fascism.  Or picking up a history book on Nazi Germany (he should ask his buddy Vox, who’s really enamored with some of their methods).

Bill Maher is an irrational douchebag

PZ Myers gives some love to Bill Maher for this appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien:

Best line: “You can’t be a rational person six days a week…and on one day of the week, go to a building, and think you’re drinking the blood of a two thousand year old space god.”

Which is nice and all. But lets take a look at what Maher said two nights earlier on the Late Show with David Letterman:

Maher: You know, I do love health as an issue. This is what I read about when I have time off.

Letterman: Are you interested in medical journals and that sort of thing?

Maher: Not western medicine, I think we’re being poisoned…I would love for you to investigate the possibility that your health issues might have arisen from the fact that you’re being poisoned by America.

Just to be clear here, Maher’s not talking about pollution here, he’s talking about pharmaceutical drugs. He’s a well known proponent of alternative medicine, and as Skeptico and Orac point out in the comments to PZ’s post, he denies the germ theory of disease, thinks vaccinations are poison and ineffectual, and is a proud supporter of PETA. That’s not exactly the resume one would expect from a rational, pro-science person.

It’s infuriating when a prominent rationalist like PZ approvingly cites Maher’s atheism or his takedown of the Troofers as a gain for rational thought in this country, because it’s abundantly clear that Maher himself isn’t a critical thinker. Sure some of the ends of his thought process align with the reality-based community, but the process itself is still tainted by magical thinking and outright lunacy.

Maher rightly views the evidence-free assertions of Christian supernaturalism as bullshit, yet amazingly can’t bring this skepticism to bear on non-Christian supernaturalism. This is because his views arise from mindless contrarianism, not critical examination of the evidence. He’s an atheist because everyone else is Christian, not because the evidence of a deity is lacking. Similarly, he’s an altie because most people use scientific medicine, not because he’s actually looked into the scientific validity of what he’s saying.

Since the “skeptic as mere contrarian” is a stereotype rationalists have been fighting for a while, it’s a shame that leading freethinkers continue to promulgate it by praising Bill Maher.