Jenny McCarthy: Real or Fake?

[Guynemer]

Couldn't you excuse her for following what she believed the credible science to be?

Let me consult the families of the children who have died of HiB meningitis, pneumococcus, and pertussis in the last several years and I'll get back to you on that.

[DinoDoc]

Wouldn't that be the fault of the parents your consulting though?

[BlackCat]

Lysenko?

You seriously need to hone your trolling skills

[Elok]

I wasn't trolling.

Lysenko was a Soviet scientist who apparently sincerely believed in ideas derived from Lamarckian evolution. Everything he said was utter rubbish, but it appealed to the leadership of the USSR on a number of levels so they instituted his agricultural "reforms"--such as dunking seeds in water and freezing them before planting. The result? The utter stagnation of Russian agriculture for decades, plus he was the center of a campaign to expunge the "bourgeois" science of genetics from the country. But you have to excuse him, after all; he thought it was valid science.

[BlackCat]

I wasn't trolling.

Ehrm, who was it that I quoted ?

[Elok]

Oh, I thought you meant his failing to recognize the name indicated I needed to use better-known names.

[BlackCat]

I consider DanS as a fairly well educated person that actually do know about affairs outside US, so I have problems with him not knowing about Lysenko. I mean, he must have heard about a theory that is just as absurd as creationism.

[DanS]

Nah, that's a little different of a situation. Lysenko was a scientist himself and with his influence should have been able to replicate the foundational studies of his school. He doesn't get a pass for his own bad science either. The Soviet state doesn't get a pass either, because they weren't open to his theories being disproven, going so far as to outlaw contradictory science.

[DanS]

I mean, he must have heard about a theory that is just as absurd as creationism.

No, sadly I was unaware of Lysenko. But in my defense, the Soviet system was rife with dumb ideas -- an institutionalization of stupidity. I can hardly hold it against my educators that they didn't teach me fully about all of those dumb ideas, but rather chose other prime examples.