Hoaxy

Today, Kent McInnis of Oklahoma City proves that he doesn't quite understand what a conspiracy theory is. His letter is a response to a recent feature on the crazy things people believe-- things like that the moon landing was staged, or that that the government covered up a UFO crash near Roswell, NM. Though not present in the on-line version, the print version has some graphics noting what percentage of people believe in what crazy ideas:

Notice the 37% who "believe global warming is a hoax" in the lower left.

Well, this is what set Mr. McInnis off. He writes

Along with believers in Bigfoot, aliens, UFOs and faked moon landings is a reference to the 37 percent of Americans who are certain global warming is a 'hoax.' Since global warming proponents see evil capitalism as the boogieman, it seems odd to reference in the article those who deny a conspiracy.

Just because one hears a cry that the discussion is settled, doesn't end the debate. Consensus in science is what put Galileo under house arrest for suggesting that the sun didn't revolve around Earth. As Physics Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman said, 'Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.'

Unfortunately, Mr. McInnis doesn't seem to know what a "conspiracy" is. It's fine to disagree with the "consensus" on some issue of research. Perhaps you think that the sun is made mostly of iron, instead of helium and hydrogen, like the consensus thinks. That's fine. But note: saying, The sun is mostly iron, and the rest of science has it wrong! is not the same thing as, The sun is mostly iron, and this helium and hydrogen stuff is a hoax put on by the rest of the scientific establishment to trick you all so they can further their own nefarious schemes!

In the second case, you're actually saying that a huge number of scientists are deliberately lying-- they're fabricating numbers, publishing fraudulent research papers, and so on. Moreover, every year, as new graduate students joint the ranks, they are all informed of the conspiracy and agree to play along. All of them. And all in the name of an actual agreed-upon agenda.

Think about that for a minute. There must be thousands of climate scientists all carrying out research on this topic. And virtually all of them see human activities as causing climate change in negative ways. To imagine that all of them are making this up to stop some "capitalist boogieman" is, in fact, a conspiracy!!

Mr. McInnis concludes by saying

The Oklahoman should have listed the percentage of Americans who accept as true that global warming is man-made. They're the ones who believe in monsters under their beds!

Zing! Well, not really. But coming from a guy who doesn't understand what a conspiracy theory is, it was a nice try,