Comments on: Bad Biology: How Adaptationist Thinking Corrupts Science

Bad Biology: How Adaptationist Thinking Corrupts Science

overeducated_alligator — Mon, 04 May 2015 13:59:59 -0800

Biologist/blogger PZ Myers provides a nice introduction to evolutionary theory, and explains how classical Darwinism is distorted by proponents of scientific racism and other pseudoscientific movements.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Mon, 04 May 2015 16:28:03 -0800

Dang! I just came here to post this.

By: lalochezia

lalochezia — Mon, 04 May 2015 16:45:00 -0800

twanscwipt pws!

By: Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon

Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon — Mon, 04 May 2015 16:50:59 -0800

Just to stir the pot, The Salty Droid covers PZM.

By: aspo

aspo — Mon, 04 May 2015 21:38:17 -0800

Ugh, I'm trying to watch this but I want to strangle the camera operator. Stop hitting the damn microphone. Stop zooming in on the speaker and missing the slides. And stop hitting the fucking microphone already. Jesus H Christ are you playing the drums on it or something? Argh! Please tell me there's a transcript, because what I've listened to stop far sounds really interesting...

By: Rich Smorgasbord

Rich Smorgasbord — Mon, 04 May 2015 22:36:13 -0800

Not quite, lalochezia, it should have been, "Wewease twanscwipt!" HA ha yeah WEWEASE TWANSCWIPT! HA HA HA ha ha... Sorry, alligator.

By: ShooBoo

ShooBoo — Mon, 04 May 2015 22:45:35 -0800

The explanation for the above-mentioned issues with the video can be found in a comment on PZM's website: Please don't be too hard on the cameraman–our (semi) regular videographer was ill, so a friend taped the talk–on his phone. (We were able to provide a tripod, at least.)

By: benito.strauss

benito.strauss — Mon, 04 May 2015 22:53:18 -0800

Interesting lecture. Thanks for posting.

By: benito.strauss

benito.strauss — Mon, 04 May 2015 23:26:54 -0800

> Just to stir the pot, The Salty Droid covers PZM. That was pretty damn incoherent and I resent the time lost trying to figure out what they were going on about.

By: atoxyl

atoxyl — Tue, 05 May 2015 01:24:00 -0800

That was pretty damn incoherent and I resent the time lost trying to figure out what they were going on about. I tried to figure this out: PZ Meyers picked up an item from the Internet by a woman who says her friend/business partner/possible lover is receiving crazy letters from his crazy religious brother, made more disturbing by their tragic family history. PZM pegs this as an example of crazy religious people. Salty Droid, a blogger who appears to be focused on exposing internet marketing scams, has been covering the story from his own angle. He claims that the woman who wrote the letter is a known liar and scammer, and the man who supposedly wrote the letters - with whom he seems to have had some personal contact - is just worried about his brother, who has left his family and been pulled into her shady dealings. Salty Droid picks up the PZM post and basically right off claims that PZM is an idiot and a bigot - against Christians I guess? PZM says that doesn't make the letter any less crazy. Members of both sites declare victory, storm off. All crystal clear now, right? Best I can do is say it is kind of tawdry of PZM to seize onto a story like that just because he wants to remind his audience that religion is bad for the 1000th time. But the droid guy also seems like kind of a dick. Some vigorous stirring for a pretty small pot.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 05 May 2015 10:16:24 -0800

Yeah, weirdly the Salty Droid guy comes out looking way worse by both ignoring the relevant context that his client(?) had actually paid to have his wife murdered years earlier, and by acting like he's the only thing preventing people who fall for internet scams from jumping off shopping malls. He could have made a stronger case, but the heady brew of profanity left him pretty incoherent without reading a lot of backstory. Instead, he just launches in with 'fuck you, anti-Christian bigot' which is functionally indistinguishable from the general invective that Meyers gets. Bonus points for describing the wife-murderer as a "nice guy" who just cares about his family. Being more straight-forward and less operatically self-indulgent with his saltiness would have let him look like far, far less of an unintelligible asshole.

By: atoxyl

atoxyl — Tue, 05 May 2015 11:19:35 -0800

No their father Anthony Sr. paid to have his wife murdered. The alleged crazy letter basically says "you are an adulterer and you are going to get what you have coming to you just like our mother did." Which is indefensibly crazy if it's authentic. Salty Droid has an ongoing vendetta against Naomi, who posted the letter (and with whom Dave is allegedly committing adultery I guess) and says Anthony Jr., who wrote it, is being misrepresented here. I don't know if that means he thinks the letter is defensible (which is ridiculous) or that he thinks the letter is fabricated. In the latter case it almost makes sense that he is going to town on Meyers for leaving the skepticism at the door when a juicy story shows up, except that his aggro style and venom toward Naomi make it very hard to tell what's really going on.

By: overeducated_alligator

overeducated_alligator — Tue, 05 May 2015 11:26:55 -0800

My feelings about PZ have run hot and cold over the years. He used to really tick me off with his bravado and stunt-pulling (like desecrating a communion host). However, in the last couple of years he has taken up the mantle of progressive values within the scientific and atheist communities. He is now as equally loathed by the Creationists as he is by the misogynist neoreactionary wing of the skeptic/atheist community. He's repeatedly put his ass on the line for feminism, anti-racism, and old-time liberalism—all this without sacrificing his dedication to good science. So, no free passes to fellow-travelers like Bill Maher (for his anti-vaccination grandstanding) nor to Richard Dawkins (for being a complete shit to everyone who isn't Richard Dawkins).

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 05 May 2015 16:04:09 -0800

"No their father Anthony Sr. paid to have his wife murdered. " Ah, thanks, missed that.

By: hydropsyche

hydropsyche — Tue, 05 May 2015 17:50:56 -0800

I always like it when PZ talks about this because like many biologists I struggle to talk to people who sort of get evolution but not really and thus have adopted a completely adaptionist approach. Sometimes it's just a friend on Facebook trying to teach their kid about nature who is saying something absurd but harmless, but other times it is a faculty member in a social science department teaching really damaging stuff and claiming biology supports it.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 05 May 2015 17:57:47 -0800

However, in the last couple of years he has taken up the mantle of progressive values within the scientific and atheist communities. Yup. This. I've really come around on Meyers because of this.

By: benito.strauss

benito.strauss — Tue, 05 May 2015 19:44:14 -0800

Thirding the PZ Meyers re-appreciation. This article marked the change for me (linked from here). And if he keeps explaining the subtleties of evolutionary biology like he did here, without worrying that it may "give ammo to the creationists" I'll like him even more. But in the future I'll be disinclined to follow any links posted in a coke-fueled journalistic frenzy.