Conspiracy Theorists and Other Enemies of Science

Journalist Will Storr recently wrote a book called The Heretics: Adventures With The Enemies Of Science which explores why so many conspiracy theorists seem to have trouble accepting facts... even when those facts are right in front of them.

This is an interesting subject and one which I've explored myself - which is why I'm certain this book would be an interesting read (the book was just published this week and I haven't had a chance to read it yet). Chris Parsons over at Yahoo! News wrote an article about the book entitled "Exploring the minds of Holocaust deniers and UFO-spotters who deny common sense".

Parsons' article begins:

"Will Storr is a man who deals in facts. As a journalist of more than 10 years, undeniable evidence and rational data are his bread and butter.

There are groups of people, however, who deny the irrefutable; who see cold, hard facts as mistruths or simply inconvenient.

Whether they are Holocaust deniers, creationists, or those who believe in UFOs - there are plenty out there whose view of the world defies centuries of scientific evidence. 

So why are there intelligent, seemingly rational people like this, who are capable of such unreasonable logic?"

Although I do agree with much of what Parsons wrote in his piece I would take issue with his statement that speaks of "intelligent, seemingly rational people", because the truth of the matter is conspiracy theorists are the farthest thing from rational. I might even debate whether most of these people are intelligent, although perhaps my personal bias is due to the lack of intelligence presented by the typical antivaccinationist. Rationality however... well there isn't much room for debate on that point. Not only do antivaxxers trample upon basic common sense, but they do so with impunity almost as if they have no desire to engage in any sort of discussion which may require it.

Either way, Storr's book might help shed some light on the thought processes that so many conspiracy theorists seem to share even when faced with evidence that counters their opinions. Unfortunately, Storr didn't include antivaxxers within his book that I've seen, but the same lack of logic and unreasonable nature most certainly applies to all conspiracy theorists regardless of form.

Whether it is someone who denies the moon landings, a Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist, a 9/11 "truther", an antivaxxer, or simply someone who believes Lee Harvey Oswald was innocent they all seem to share several things in common - a blatant disregard for logic, a stubborn refusal to accept facts when presented to them, and an complete and total inability to admit when they are wrong.

I wonder what it might take to get an antivaxxer to review Storr's book? If you are interested, you can pick up a hardcover copy from Amazon, or if you are patient you can probably wait for the paperback or (hopefully) even the ebook version.

Mr. Hubbs Convoluted Idea of "Research"

As is often the case with conspiracy theorists, Mr. Hubbs believes he has a superior knowledge of science, medical issues, vaccines, and healthcare in general.  He believes anyone who doesn't agree with him or share the same viewpoint is somehow ignorant or being manipulated by the CDC, FDA, AMA, or "big pharma".  Mr. Hubbs commonly refers to Doctors and Researchers (or anyone who cites scientific evidence to support a claim) as "sheeple" and he believes his vast amount of time spent on the Internet somehow makes him an expert on vaccinations and medicine (among other things such as hacking and Apollo Moon landings).

Case in point, Mr. Hubbs sent an email which included the following passage:

Go review the information! I can explain it very easily, but I am not spending any more time with this today. Its all there. I have done thousands of hours of research and reading. I can tell you the real facts are all there. If you aren't willing to research it when it is right in front of you; then simply don't trash it. Only you can learn the truth; if you want to; I am not going to tutor and baby sit you. You clearly have no intention to want to know the real facts anyway.   ~Lowell Hubbs

This is a prime example of how Mr. Hubbs shows us that his idea of "research" involves sitting in front of a computer and reading various blogs or websites from anti-vaccination drones or accepting unsubstantiated statements from self-proclaimed experts who claim they can cure autism or have a 100% success rate curing cancer, but who are never able to prove their claims with reputable scientific studies.

The reality is, true medical research and knowledge is not gained by parroting statements of others (which may or may not even be based upon fact).  True research is done by those in the field and in the lab who are working with these issues as a career rather than a hobby.  If and when a breakthrough is made or a discovery is reached, these experts don't run out and blog about it or make bold claims to the public, because they know no outcome is considered proven science until it can be fully and accuarately replicated.

This is why the scientific community relies so heavily upon peer-reviewed science.  Anyone can make a claim, and anymore can claim they are able to prove such a claim, but fortunately for modern academia it isn't acceptable to merely take someone's word for it.  When it comes to matters of science and matters of fact, the conclusions and outcomes of studies need to be examined, verified, challenged, and yes authenticated.  Only when facts are double and triple checked, and only when statements and theories are examined by one's peers and validated to be accurate can we accept them as fact.

However in the mind of Mr. Hubbs, fact doesn't require such scrutiny.  It is more than sufficient to read a blog or a website and the statements of a profitteering alternative medicine practitioner and accept what they say at face value.  Mr. Hubbs doesn't have the critical thinking ability nor the scientific background to understand that this is not how science works, but that doesn't stop him from pretending what some of these people say is factual.

Rather than attempt to prove any of these statements or hypothesis, the anti-vaccination types fall back upon that old tired line that they are unable to publish their findings because they wouldn't be accepted in any medical journal.  Mr. Hubbs himself often repeats this excuse when pressed for evidence and he attempts to make claims about the flow of scientific information is controlled by "big pharma" or that the AMA et al would never allow such studies to be published because it would harm industry profits.

Granted when informed that there are hundreds of different scholarly journals published around the globe (many if not most of which are out of the reach of the AMA) and thousands upon thousands of studies published each and every year, Mr. Hubbs keeps finding excuses as to why none of these anti-vaccination "experts" have ever been able to prove any of their findings or publish any of their research in a true peer-reviewed journal.

For Mr. Hubbs it all comes down to money.  He claims there is no money to be made by a natural cure and therefore there is no funding to publish a study which would explain it.  However as I have discussed in the past, this quite simply is not true as there are many research grants available for the independent researcher who wishes to find a cure or new treatment for a disease.

Perhaps one of the greatest medical advancements in the past 100 years comes to us from Dr. Jonas Salk who provided us with the world's first polio vaccine.  Did Dr. Salk do his research at the behest of a pharmaceutical company in the name of profits?  Did Dr. Salk become a multi-millionaire from the patent to his vaccine?  Did Dr. Salk only license his vaccine to a specific company and charge an outrageous amount for it in order to pad the company bottom line and his own personal bank account?

The answer to these questions are all no, because not only did Dr. Salk not seek to hide his vaccine from the public, he offered it to all with no profit motive.  In fact when famously asked who owns the patent to the vaccine, Salk responded, "No one. Could you patent the sun?".

The point is, we as humans all have a desire to create a better society.  Although greed and money are driving factors for many, those who toil away for decades in a lab don't do so for fame or for wealth... they do so in order to make a difference.  There is no greater honor for a scientist that to discover something which can help eliminate disease among mankind or cure the suffering of others, and knowing they made a difference is worth exponentially more than any amount of material wealth could ever be.

The fact is our society loves a hero, and if there was a man or woman who could cure cancer, or if there was a person who could unlock the keys to the true root cause of autism that person would be not only a hero within the United States, but across the globe.  No amount of profit or greed would ever keep such a secret in the dark, but then again no amount of logic or fact is ever about to convince a conspiracy theorist like Mr. Hubbs that sugar doesn't cause polio and you can't cure cancer with baking soda.

More Comical Idiocy From Mr. Hubbs

Mr. Hubbs left a comment on one of the posts, and once again he proves his ignorance to technology. This is his idea of a response to when I posted information about his idiotic website including the registration data, the IP address of the hosting server, and the expiration date of his hosting contract.

So what does Mr. Hubbs do in response to this information? He tries to do a DNS lookup on this blog and use this information to show how completely clueless he is.

Note to Mr. Hubbs: This is a blog hosted on the Blogger platform. Blogger is owned by Google, and I pay zero hosting fees to anyone, thus I am not listed as a registrant to this particular URL or website. If you had an even basic understanding of "the Internets" you would know this, so quit trying to act as if you have a clue when it is so obvious you don't.

In any case, here is the comment Mr. Hubbs attempted to post:

I am nowhere near done yet with this; when I get done there is no way you would want your name on that blog; if you had to actually identify yourself! It will take some time, I curently havent had. Then it will later all go up on the website! You are a fool! 209.85.214.68 IP out of Mountain View CA 1600 Amphiteatre Parkway Google Inc., is that your new IP address? You either have hacking ability or are involved with them. Your exposes would tend to tell me that all by itself. ~Lowell Hubbs

As you can see, Mr. Hubbs thinks I wouldn't want to be associated with this blog, but he couldn't be more wrong. I actually take great pride in my work, and the emails and comments I have received from others only serve to confirm that this blog serves a very valid purpose - not to mention that I enjoy every minute of it.

That being said, Mr. Hubbs seems to believe the IP address of a Google-owned and operated server is somehow "my" IP address, and he even went so far as to post the physcial address that Google uses for their server registrations via ICANN.

The most comical aspect of his comment however is his continual accusations of hackers and hacking. I freely admit my computer and technical knowledge is more advanced that the average person, but even if I had a true ability to "hack" Mr. Hubbs' personal computer and/or website from afar, I quite simply wouldn't bother. First of all it would be counter-productive since allowing him to continue his daily rants and keeping him occupied in front a computer is probably safer for the citizens of Sioux Falls (as we know what happens when he gets a little free time, some alcohol, and a set of car keys). Secondly, if I did have the ability to hack Mr. Hubbs, why would I bother deleting comments from the Argus Leader website or remotely shut down his PC or block his ability to post when the most logical way to annoy him would be to simply erase his entire website and replace it with a pro-vaccination message from the CDC?

Logic dictates Mr. Hubbs' theories simply don't hold up to scrutiny, but logic has never been his strong point. The simple truth is the only reason I posted his silly comment is to show how even when it is blatantly obvious to everyone else that Mr. Hubbs is way outside of his league and when he is clearly uninformed and ignorant on a specific topic, Mr. Hubbs himself still doesn't recognize how idiotic he looks.

The same is true on topics of a scientific or medical nature. Even those of a moderate intellect understand what the burden of proof is, and most people with an eighth grade education or higher have at least a basic understanding of science and the scientific method, which is why it is so frustrating to see self-proclaimed experts like Mr. Hubbs trying to pretend he knows the "facts" and the "truth" when I'm not entirely convinced the man understands such simple concepts such as the Earth revolving around the Sun, circumference versus diameter, or that no - you cannot actually survive a plummeting elevator by jumping just before it hits bottom.

Lowell Hubbs: A legend in his own (rather tiny and underveloped) mind.

Lowell Hubbs' Opinion on the Moon Landings

As with most conspiracy theorists, Mr. Hubbs doesn't limit himself to simply subjects of vaccinations or government plots to poison the population via fluoride in the drinking water.  Instead, Mr. Hubbs likes to diversify his conspiracy theories and one of the most obvious ways to do so is to call into question the fact that Americans put a man on the moon back in 1969.

Yes dear readers, as sad as it may seem, Mr. Hubbs is an admitted moon landing conspiracy theorist as proven by the following quotes:

"I do not know if they went to the moon or not" - Lowell Hubbs

Now a person of even moderate intelligence would simply consult a history book or the Internet to provide them with more than enough evidence to support the fact that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon decades ago, but as we have shown in the past, Mr. Hubbs is not one to accept fact unless it comes from a self-proclaimed expert who sells DVDs or books full of unsupported theories.

"We supposedly sent a man to the moon over 30 years ago" - Lowell Hubbs

Here we see Mr. Hubbs using the term "supposedly" which again displays his doubt whether or not the United States ever actually landed on the moon.  Apparently for Mr. Hubbs, the whole thing was fabricated and the video, photographs, and first-hand accounts of the landings were all faked.  Say what you will about NASA, but they must be really, really good at keeping secrets considering it has been over 40 years and not a single person out of the thousands upon thousands involved in the moon landings has ever come forward to support these wild accusations.

"All I know is that the US flag was waiving in the wind in the footage of landing and the claim is that there is no wind on the moon." - Lowell Hubbs

Last, but surely not least here we see a display of Mr. Hubbs using one of the oldest conspiracy theories about the moon landings.  Apparently Mr. Hubbs believes the American Flag the astronauts placed on the surface of the moon was fluttering in the "wind", whereas it was explained 40 years ago that because there is a complete and total vacuum on the moon, and because there is very, very little gravity, objects that are put into motion tend to stay in motion (which anyone with an 8th grade science education will tell you is part of Newton's first law of motion).  Therefore when the astronauts placed the flag on the moon, it continued to move due to their actions, not as a result of any "wind".

Besides, if someone was trying to fake a moon landing, do we really think they would do so outdoors where wind would be an issue or where they might be seen?  Don't bother trying to think logically however - logic isn't exactly a tenet of conspiracy theorists.

So what does any of this have to do with vaccinations you ask?  Well, in all honesty not a thing - but I feel it is important to show what type of person Mr. Hubbs is and how his apparent distrust of the government and refusal to accept proven facts seem to infiltrate his daily thought processes whether that includes moon landings, vaccinations, hackers, hit men, or a mixture of the above.

It seems fairly obvious that Mr. Hubbs is ten gallons of crazy in a five gallon bucket.