The Paranoid Style in American Science

[TerzaRima]

Excellent Slate article about the rise of conspiratorial thinking about science (http://www.slate.com/id/2189178/entry/2189361/)

There's an excellent line in here about how obsessive fear of uncertainty is the opposite of science. Good read.

[donroc]

I remember the academic hysteria vs. Velikovsky when his WORLDS IN COLLISION came out, and Sagan continued to trash him through subsequent decades.

[small axe]

Interesting. And yet, the first defense of any actual conspiracy -- upon being discovered -- is probably to discount its discoverers as being 'paranoid' :)