Much of the negativity towards EXPELLED focuses not just on the dishonesty of the filmmakers in their manipulation of the facts (which par for the course for documentaries nowadays), but the reprehensible way in which they try to make the connection between Darwin and Hitler, between true science and pseudoscience. As Russell Seitz (again!) notes, they’re being dishonest there as well. One of Stein’s interview subjects is Polish politician and ID advocate Maciej Giertych, who asserts the lineage of Darwin to Hitler. Well, Giertych’s own lineage leads to Nazism as well: his son Roman is leader of a group with neo-Nazi sympathies which has held illegal rallies in Poland. Now you might be saying “C’mon, it’s not fair to indict a father for his child’s sins”. In this case, however, li’l Giertych is learning from Big Daddy. A quick glance at Maciej’s Wikipedia page reveals a history of anti-Semitic agitiation and large-f Fascist sympathies over the course of his time in office, and long before then, he collaborated with the Communist government. And totalitarian sympathies are just the tip of the Giertych iceberg: he also thinks dinosaurs lived alongside humans and Neanderthals still live today. 

Whoa, whole lotta hypocrisy going on. Stein & co kept making these dubious connections between Nazism and their opponents, when it turns out their allies are the real thing. Even more eregrious is the way EXPELLED’s defenders try to justify the dishonesty of the filmmaker’s tactics, saying that they should have “Googled Ben Stein + evolution” before consenting to be interviewed. Well, the filmmakers should have also Googled Giertych, in which case they would have found out that he’s nuttier than the outhouse at Jimmy Carter’s peanut farm. But do they really care? An ad for EXPELLED I saw in a local alternative newspaper featured glowing praise by WhirledNutsDaily head honcho Joseph Farah, who thinks dinosaurs were the dragons of legend and pterodactyls still live today. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Do they really want people loonier than the Canadian dollar to endorse their movie? I guess so.