Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms The Planet, And Threatens Our Lives (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
If you are unfamiliar with the topics in this book, then I recommend it; otherwise I really don't. I've read many books on vaccines, GMOs, alternative medicine, climate change and so on so there wasn't any new material here for me to read and was more just preaching to the choir. This book is much more politically neutral than other books on these topics such as "The Republican War on Science" (a critique of the right) and "Science Left Behind" (a critique of the left) and covers topics covered in both books but this book is not about scoring political points and is simply pro science and the harms and the absurdities that denialism has on our health and environment. I found that aspect of the book refreshing because it wasn't some political rant. For anybody considering reading this book, watch Michael Specters 20 minute TED talk and you'll know if this book is for you or not. Personally I had never heard this "view" on any of these subjects before so it was hard for me to formulate an opinion. I always believed that organic was the way to go and "natural" was the way to be, but surprisingly the author did challenge a lot of these assumptions for me and helped me come to terms with a number of ways that this can be taken overboard, out of context, and be just plain wrong. In this way I was enthralled. However, the writing and the cohesiveness of his arguments needed a lot of polishing and a lot of fleshing out. Making me have mixed feelings about the work as a whole. I do appreciate that it gave me some different vantage points to viewing subjects that I thought had only one answer.
What do You think about Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms The Planet, And Threatens Our Lives (2009)?
Little new information and less prescription to overcome this strain of anti-intellectualism
—gracieface123
The info in this book was interesting and thought-provoking, but it was poorly written.
—loca
