I was looking forward to reading John Derbyshire’s review EXPELLED for National Review. He’s already taken down the trailer and misleading web campaign superbly (read here for direct links and commentary by DCers), but alas, NR decided instead to give priority to two doofuses, David Klinghoffer and Dave Berg (I’m not going to link directly to them and make you waste your time; instead, read The Sensuous Curmudgeon’s witty take on them). Fortunately, both Derb and Jonah Goldberg (more reservedly) let it be known that they don’t share Klinghoffer or Berg’s views…but then Goldberg decided to share some real, real, REAL stupid mail he had gotten from people who do agree with them. In fit of pique, I wrote back, and Goldberg was kind enough to print my reply (I’m the third response down), but he did chastize me gently for “beating up” on his other correspondants.
DCers Quark2005 and orionblamblam cooked up this appropriate MSTing of EXPELLED, so thank them for it. Hopefully, most people will only watch this “documentary” when Mike Nelson does a RiffTrack of it (even though Joel is still better).
Abstract: We have found through field studies that interbreeding between M.dianectis and M.deanitis has resulted in a new species, M.dumbassis. This new species is primarily distinguished by its mating call, a painful, nasal drawl, in contrast to the hysterical, obnoxious laugh of dianectis and loud, frightening yell of deanitis which are characteristic of those species. Although the homozygous species of Moonbatus are both known to be prone to aggressive behavior and species-specific forms of mental instability, this new heterozygous variation is highly susceptible to severe neurophysiologicial deficency, and is believed to be a primary host for the prion that causes the affliction known as cretardation (aka Coulter-Limbaugh Syndrome). For this reason, culling of the entire hybrid species in order to prevent further brain damage to the human population is recommended.
Figure 1(a):
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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.
Hope you thought this ditty was nice.
If you agree, thank Russell Seitz
Ben Stein likely can’t
See the flaws in his rant
And Seitz is equally adamant!
I’m only asking, because not long after Fox News movie critic Roger Friedman’s pan of Expelled, NY Post film critic Kyle Smith hurls another rotten tomato at it. The highest-profile critic to review the film so far, Smith is less scathing than Friedman, and starts out giving the film too much benefit of the doubt, but totally comes around at the end:
Religion, the combination of philosophy and myth handed down to us, is blind to science. Science ought to return the favor. In a long, greasy detour, Stein shows that the Nazis were Darwinists. So what? They also liked skiing. Having Nazi fans doesn’t make Darwin wrong.
There is no “should” in the theory of evolution. Eugenics is a philosophy, not a science, even if Darwin indulged in it. Religion is normative, all about that “should.” It does belong behind that wall, separated from the search for fact.
Other than that the Nazis were most certainly not Darwinists and that Darwin’s only personal connection to eugenics was being a cousin to Francis Galton, Smith gets it right here. Science is science, religion is religion, and never the twain shall meet. Smith manages to penetrate the either/or fallacy employed by the Expelled filmmakers at least as well as Richard Dawkins did. Maybe even better, since Dawkins made the mistake of taking what many of us perceived as a cheap shot against those who disagreed with his politics.
And speaking of rotten tomatoes…9%, Benjy, and dropping like a rock. Hope you’re still getting residuals every time The Mask and Richie Rich play on TBS.
UPDATE: 8% and dropping like a pigeon. Stein’s career somehow survived after making North and Frankenstein General Hospital, but I don’t see how he’ll survive this one.
UPDATE #2: Well, it’s back to 9%, but still, just two fresh reviews, and one of them is from Christianity Today, and it’s more a mixed review than a positive one. It’s a lot like how most of the positive reviews for Lions for Lambs came from moonbat sites like Counterpunch.
We’ve already linked to Michael Shermer’s brilliant evisceration of Expelled in our last post. Now, Shermer is one of the best defenders of science out there, and everyone concerned with scientific literacy should be proud to call him a friend. Like Eugenie Scott or Ken Miller, he’s very wise and diplomatic, respectful of people even when they disagree with him, but still not afraid to call out ignorance or stupidity when he sees it. And besides, I have to love someone who writes an article like this. Alas, being wise, diplomatic, and damned near 100% right on everything carries with it a heavy price; it means putting up with the willingly ignorant and insufferably stupid, who won’t listen to the facts no matter how clearly and persuasively you try to present them. Continue Reading »
Even though the makers of Expelled are trying to push their product to high school students, and insisting that it is acceptable viewing for young skulls full of mush, the MPAA thinks otherwise. They have given Expelled a PG rating, the reasons being:
thematic material, some disturbing images and brief smoking.
Mm-hmm. I guess Ben Stein shouldn’t be fretting about getting a PG rating for smoking, given that it’s his good buddy Rob Reiner who has helped agitate for that idiotic new MPAA criteria. But does blatant plagiarism really count as a disturbing image? Oh, wait, they probably meant the footage of Nazi and communist atrocities-or, rather, the disgusting and disgraceful exploitation of them to make an absurd point. That’s every bit as loathsome as the attempts by the far left to smear Bush and anyone else they happen to disagree with with the Nazi label (I’m just flaming out of the political closet, aren’t I?). As for the supposed “thematic material” in the film which is “supposedly” so objectionable, the MPAA should just come out and say it: this movie is a fountain of fibs and fallacies, is completely immoral at a time when we need to be improving scientific literacy instead of diminishing it, and your kids will be all the dumber for watching it. In a world where parents let their kids watch The Doodlebops, however, I’m not so sure that valuing a child’s mental health is paramount among parental values nowadays.
As promised, the NCSE updated its Expelled Exposed website today to include a full debunking of the scientific and historical claims made in the crockumentary, as well as the dubious assertions of “persecution” by some of the interviewees. In addition, they offer some verrry interesting background information on the film’s marketing campaign and the people behind it. In spite of not being screened for critics, advance reviews from Time magazine (by Jeffrey Kluger, former columnist for Discover magazine and co-author with James Lovell of LOST MOON, the basis for the film APOLLO 13) and Variety all point to a bomb. It’s bad enough seeing fellow conservatives embrace pseudoscience, even worse when they stoop the left’s currently trendy tactics of making purposely misleading and fabricated “documentaries” as a vehicle for fibbery.
We’re trying to do our part in helping to dispel the misinformation and distortions being perpetuated by the makers of EXPELLED, but as usual, the indispensible National Center for Science Education is on the ball quicker than anyone else, and has set up EXPELLED EXPOSED, an invaluable set of resources refuting arguments made in the film. As they note in their masthead, Intelligent Design hasn’t been expelled from science; it’s been flunked, having failed to meet the proper criteria of any good theory. We strongly advise that you check back on the site continually over the next few weeks, as the NCSE is promising to provide an official response to the film on April 15, and-providing that the threat of legal recourse from Harvard doesn’t scare them into holding back the release further-more and more critiques are sure to come. Also, make sure to check out the new Dispelled blog, offering continual critical updates on the film and its ad campaign.