Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Shrinking the Big Tent

Here's an interesting post over at one of the 9-11 Denial websites, that I actually agree with:

Rather than growing the 9/11 Truth Movement, the Big Tent strategy promises to limit it by facilitating straw man attacks such as Popular Mechanics', and by discouraging the peer-review that the work of 9/11 skeptics desperately needs. Any investigation, to be taken seriously, must have a means of distinguishing between baseless and substantial claims. The progress of science is a result of the application of the scientific method, which subjects theories to a repeated process of observation, hypothesis, experiment, and revision, enforced by peer review. Theories not supported by or invalidated by observation are discarded. The 9/11 Truth Movement's Big Tent has functioned in a way that is antithetical to the process of science, as it does not admit any process for invalidating theories.


Of course, the writer wants his theories to be the ones that are accepted and pushed forward as "the Truth", but wants all that kookie stuff like no-planes to be sent into exile. Well, you can see the difficulty there, right? Everybody thinks their pet theory is the sensible one, even the no-planers.

2 Comments:

At 14 November, 2006 10:17, Blogger Triterope said...

A big tent approach will never work for 9-11 Truth. There are too many competing theories, and too many egotards who think they need to king of the movement. Any attempt to make a large, inclusive group will quickly fracture into warring fiefdoms, like it is now.

I hope they try, though. It will be fun to watch it implode.

 
At 14 November, 2006 15:16, Blogger shawn said...

straw man attacks such as Popular Mechanics'

I'd love for these Einsteins to actually understand what "straw man" means.

 

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