This book was going along okay, not the best I had read on the topic but tolerable. To be fair, the author's British perspective was refreshing on many of the issues he decided to cover (by no means a comprehensive one, for example he ignores climate change deniers). His coverage of intelligent design among Muslim groups was new to me, though I should have become suspicious at this point about his manner of blaming the "leftist" press. And then it came together in the final chapter where the author rails against the left for being the reason for counterknowledge spreading with all their dismantling of institutions and authority. Yep, he blames feminist literary criticism pretty much for spreading misinformation about vaccines. This is when I threw the book across the room.There are much better books on the topic with fewer axes to grind and a better understanding of the history and sociology of the topic. This could have been a good popular book on the subject but instead it turned out to be a litany of tired tirades about the death of western institutions. Cause you know, western institutions always protected us so well against junk science and junk history. I find it immensely ironic that a book called counter knowledge could be so sexist and racist. This is an angry, brilliant rant on the growing culture of misinformation. Are you a 9/11 conspiracy theorist? Sceptical about global warming, think the moon landings were fake, the Holocaust was exaggerated and the evidence for evolution isn't compelling? Perhaps you think China discovered America in 1421, or that Homeopathy does actually work? If you answer yes to any of these questions, this book is for you.Although all these principles have been demolished elsewhere, what makes this book so compelling is the way it ties all the strands together in one argument -- the essence of all conspiracy theories is to take one complicated topic and focus on a specific issue which points in a different direction, and ignore the whole the whole raft of evidence that contradicts it.
What do You think about Counterknowledge (2008)?
Not so much "how" as an indignant catalog of silly ideas gaining traction in the mainstream media.
—bigdude6961
Well-written, concise...a splash of cold-water, a breath of fresh aire. Recommended!
—kacesta
Five stars for the ideas, less two for the tone.
—Sisolak98
