Propagating Ignorance

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The ‘Balance Routine’

“[I]gnorance can often be propagated under the guise of balanced debate. For example, the common idea that there will always be two opposing views does not always result in a rational conclusion. This was behind how tobacco firms used science to make their products look harmless, and is used today by climate-change deniers to argue against the scientific evidence. 

“This balance routine has allowed the cigarette men, or climate deniers today, to claim that there are two sides to every story, that ‘experts disagree’ — creating a false picture of the truth, hence ignorance.” 

—Robert Proctor, Stanford science historian who coined the term agnotology, “the deliberate propagation of ignorance,” in Georgina Kenyon’s “The man who studies the spread of ignorance,” BBC, 2016. 

• Editorial Comment: On the other hand . . .

PeezPix by Ted Pease

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