I've been thinking about con men and moral panics.
I grew up watching "The Music Man" and other musicals. My grandmother loved the confidence man or the shyster character. She gave me an early appreciation of a good villain. Even as a child, Ursula reminded me of her, though I think at that age it was largely a cosmetic similarity I saw. (Some of us grandkids used to joke, "Giggy's not out of shape. Circle is a shape.")
Joseph Smith was a convicted con man before he started the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (How is it LDS instead of LdS ince the "d" in the full name is lower case? This kind of thing bugs me.) L. Ron Hubbard was most assuredly a liar and a shyster and crazy as hell to boot. Of course, Marshall Applewhite wasn't a paragon of sanity himself. (Pop unders on that last link.)
First you have to start a moral panic. You have to convince people that they have a problem only you, your infomercial product, your business seminar, your health care plan, or your cult can solve. Religions capitalize on this largely by telling people that perfectly natural elements of their lives - everything from natural disaster to sexual arousal - is the product of sin in their lives. Guilt for perceived wrongs, and fear of retribution, are the primary tactics used by religion.
A technique used by politicians, televangelists, and Professor Harold Hill is the moral panic. I'll let Tracy explain.
(Gotta love the Westboro Baptist Church for showing the world just what the Bible really says. They may be vile and hateful, and they are definitely damaging their children, but they aren't hipocrits.)
You can see this technique now in the Astroturf campaigns against health care, and paying your taxes, and getting a better source of energy than coal. The Deathers and Birthers and Tenthers and 9/12ers. The 9/11 Truthers.
There are a shit load of crazy people running around right now, and I for one and am not happy about it. Goddamn moral panics! Read more!
I've been thinking about distrust of experts, elites, intellectuals, etc. a lot over the past few days. And there's been much fodder for my thoughts, in the form of teeth bleaching internet ads saying "Don't let the dentist fool you!"; the anti-vaccination crowd seeing a conspiracy theory that isn't there between the FDA, APA, and AMA; and the comments of someone Cameron was debating.
Today I'd like to talk about trust and distrust. I grew being taught extreme scorn for all experts, whether it was scientists, doctors, politicians, teachers, psychologists, therapists, and even coaches and athletes (grandma was fat, short, and unathletic - therefore athletes were unholy sinners). We also had the much-less-typical learned distrust of our own pastors, because Gig wanted to be the ultimate authority. Most detrimental of all, I was taught not to trust myself or my own abilities.
Whether it's 9-11 "truthers", UFO believers, armedhealthcare demonstrators, the 9-12marchers, unassisted home birth advocates, anti-vaxers, or certain home schoolers -- distrust of the government, of powerful organizations, and of experts runs rampant in the fringe corners of our society. In sixth grade we watched a video on Lucy and the fossil record. I remember thinking, "Well that valley is full of bones. Clearly they just stuck a bunch together and there's no way to discern if those bones actually came from the same creature. They probably just got chimp bones and people bones mixed up." (Yeah, I sucked.) I thought I knew better than PhD scientists working in specialized fields, and handling and testing the actual evidence. I was 12. Maybe it can be blamed on my age, but I think it's probably due to my upbringing.
To give you some idea of how we regarded experts, I'll remind you that I was born at home, without a doctor or midwife. I was never vaccinated. I didn't go to a doctor or a dentist or a school as a young child. My family didn't belong to a recognized denomination of Christianity. And my grandmother advocated that True Christians ought to remove themselves from the "Seven Systems" of the world - education, religion, government, banking, medicine, entertainment, and science. (Think about it - I was told to avoid at all costs education, religion, government, banking, medicine, entertainment, and science. What the heck is left?)
There is only one nice story my grandmother ever tells about my brother, who she victimized and abused for years until he was thrown out of the house at age 12. He was young and in Sunday school, and he corrected the teacher on a passage of scripture. Standing up against the expert, or perceived expert, was apparently the greatest thing he'd ever done in her eyes. (Of course, standing up to her wasn't tolerated, and was her justification for physical, verbal, and emotional abuse.) I'll go ahead and add in here that there are lot of nice things to say about my brother, like the fact that he's almost completed his PhD in physics, that he is an excellent dancer, that he's good at making and keeping close friendships, that he is a good if messy cook, and that is a kind person who for the most part leaves people to do and believe as they wish. But you can't get her to acknowledge any of that. The only thing she valued was seeing another Christian authority figure dragged down by a kid.
At this stage in my life, I love experts. I realize how arrogant and foolish it is to try to be an expert at everything yourself, and to reject the lifetimes of work and study people have already put into these areas. I trust scientists to tell me what is good and bad science; doctors to tell me if it's a good idea to vaccinate my kid; and cult experts to tell me how to get better. Now, I'm not claiming all experts are credible, trustworthy, or right. That would be an argument from authority, which is classified as a logical fallacy.
I went through three pediatricians in as many months, till I found a doctor who would actually diagnose my son instead of telling me he "just has colic" and that I was merely freaking out because "first time moms worry a lot". (He had gastro-esophageal reflux disease, GERD, and by the time he was diagnosed at 3 months old, already had severe scarring on his esophagus from stomach acids.) Also, if my mechanic seems to be ripping me off, I'm likely to get a second or even third opinion.
Healthy skepticism is good (although not the food-conspiracy group that goes by the name Healthy Skepticism. They're full of something that rhymes with it.) Checking sources, investigating claims, and considering arguments from multiple sides are all useful tools in determining whether or not a claim is true or valid. But an individual expert, or group of experts, can have broad credibility. I can say "95% of US scientists accept evolution as true" in support of my claim that evolution is true (because it is). I can also further say that ">95% of US evolutionary biologists accept evolution as true". In this comparison, clearly the biologist has more expertise on the questions of biological life. Now again, I'm not going with attempting to go with bandwagon fallacy. ("Everybody's doing it!") If I thought that was a decent way to live my life, I'd be a Christian. But the larger scientific community does have credibility because of internal checks and balances such as the peer review process.
Furthermore, if I have reason to trust 99% of what an individual expert says, it may be unnecessary for me to investigate as thoroughly every single claim this person makes. For example, I really respect Matt Dillahunty at Atheist Experience. I find that I agree with a majority of his stated opinions, and have not found him to have tremendous factual errors, even as he speaks off the cuff on the Atheist Experience. Furthermore, I have heard him admit to making a mistake, and taking action to correct it. In my opinion, based on this track record, I think he is probably a credible source for certain topics he studies thoroughly, like Christianity and atheism. So when he (and everyone else at the ACA) says that the movie Zeitgeist is pathetic conspiracy theory nonsense (I am sooooo paraphrasing), I take them at their word. I may see the film at some point, but I might not. Like reading the review to decide whether or not to watch a box office feature, I can rely on experts or people with extensive knowledge, who show themselves to be credible (especially for something as relatively insignificant as a documentary).
A third source that I trust, and therefore might not approach with full skepticism, is the Rachel Maddow Show. Like scientists and the ACA, when she has been wrong about something, she takes steps to correct it. She announces on the air where she has made an error, and retracts or amends it.
People who claim to be infallible, who never admit to being wrong, and who claim to have all the answers, are the people we should view with the highest degree of skepticism. The less extraordinary a claim is, and the more it fits in with reality as we know it, the less thoroughly we need to examine it.
So go ahead, trust the experts a little. Investigate claims that seem untrue or counter intuitive, or that come from an untrustworthy source. (Example: Glenn Beck.) Don't turn off your skepticism, but don't confuse being open-minded with being gullible.
Oh, and in general response to the whole 9/12 thing (which I find so completely disrespectful to the memories of 9-11 victims, their families, and our military), here's Rachel.
My favorite moment is at the very end when it sounds like the camera guy lets out an unintended laugh.
Seriously though? This shit is scary. I grew up in a cult, and I have to tell you that what I've been seeing in these town halls reminds me of my childhood. I'm gonna review the full meaning of a very important word today, as defined by Dale McGowan of Parenting Beyond Belief. Indoctrination: 1) Shut out opposing views 2) Demand unquestioning acceptance
The town hall nuts are certainly shutting out opposing views - as they've been instructed to by the corporate front group "grassroots organizations" that have indoctrinated them. When you equate someone (Obama) with Hitler (or any other particularly vile excrement of the human species) you make it impossible for the dissenters to listen to the other side. This woman is accusing Jewish Rep. Barney Frank of supporting a Nazi policy. This is outrageous behavior!
These people are victims of a system that is exploiting them and profitting off of them. It's really quite disgusting and absolutely immoral (not that I'm claiming absolute morality - I'm just sayin'). See - the reason people are behaving so nonsensically is because their heads have been filled with really scary nonsense. Which is why they are arming themselves.
That guy with the sidearm strapped to his hip interviewing the assault-rifle toting African American? (See? Now FOX can say that none of the protesters are there because of race.) That guy is ___ an internet conservative radio host, and he organizaed the Arizona "let's all bring guns to see the President" stunt. Rachel Maddow reports.
Talking Points Memo (yeah, yeah, I'm liberal, but what am I supposed to read - FOX News?) has a really good write-up and more information than I personally feel like researching on the Viper Militia. But, um, Waco-deniers? Shit how many right wing conspiracy theories ARE there?
Okay, first I have to say I felt dirty just writing that list. *shudder* Why are people so crazy?
On an only marginally-related note, please sign my petition to get the religious exemption language removed from HR 3200. This can be one crucial step towards removing the religious right to deprive children of life saving medical intervention.
The government doesn't tell us how to raise our kids, but it does tell us that physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect are unacceptable. Medical neglect should be treated the same. (We don't allow a religious exemption to beat your kids.)Read more!
So I'm sure everyone's aware of the Birther Conspiracy by now. This is the gem that claims Obama's secretly foreign, and therefore secretly not the actual President. The funny thing is, everyone's focus is primarily on the birth certificate. (It's real - go check it out for yourselves, damnit.)
To me this is extra funny because of course, I wasn't born in a hospital; there was no attending physician; and I didn't even get my birth certificate - or social security number - till I was 4 and my sister was 6.
Home birth, abstinence from medical care, and general crazy-in-the-woods isolationism were all really important to the theology of my now-senile (but always crazy) cult leader grandmother. She conned my mother and hundreds of other women into these home births, and encouraged them to stay "out of the system". That particular aspect of her theology kicked in sometime in the two years between my brother's birth and my sister's, so he has a normal birth certificate (although, obviously, not signed by a hospital administrator) and my sister and I eventually got "delayed birth certificates". A DBC is basically a piece of paper saying "Some people claim to be related to this kid". It helps when getting a driver's license or applying for a job, but it is missing some critical elements of credibility.
When she was 19, my sister had a chance to accompany my mom on a foreign business trip to Venezuela. Since my sister has been in love with the Spanish language since she was a second grader, she set about getting her passport. And you know what? It's hard to get one of those when you have no proof of your citizenship/existence before age 6. We ended up putting together a package for the Passport Office that included photocopies of birth records in the family Bible and dozens of pictures of my sister from being a squashy newborn, through years of pictures with my mom, my older brother, and myself, to her blonde-goth high school yearbook photo. Eventually she got the passport, went on her trip, and two years later even spent a semester abroad in South America. When I was applying for my own passport a year later, it was easier. I just sent them the same box, with a letter saying basically "You gave her one." Of course, I ended up tearing my shoulder a week before I was supposed to go to Germany, and in the past 8 years since then, I still haven't made it off American soil. Tragic, really.
All this is really is just to say: Not only did my grandmother totally warp my mind with her crazy dogma; She's ruined my chances of becoming President. Oh well, at least my kid was born in a hospital - I've got the paperwork and everything.
The picture in this post is of Barack Hussein Obama's certificate of live birth from the State of Hawaii. Never believe what FactCheck.org has thoroughly debunked.Read more!
URGENT: If you do nothing else today, sign and share this petition on HR 3200: Prayer is Not Medical Care. Protect children and elderly from federally funded medical neglect.
Sign this petition asking Senators to move forward with the House-passed HR 911 bill to end Institutionalized Child Abuse in residential youth facilities, wilderness "experiences", and "boot camps".
