The Raw Story Would Like To Drop Some "Science" On You

posted 4/22/2013 by the Salt City Sinner

As both of this bloggue’s readers know, I am no great fan of free-market economics. I am also no great fan of climate change deniers. I am, additionally, no great fan of the music of Peter Cetera, but that is beside the point (actually, my hatred of Peter Cetera is never REALLY that far from the front of my mind, but to everything there is a season &c.).

Why, then, would I object to an article posted on popular liberal blog The Raw Story with the promising title “Study finds belief in free market economics predicts rejection of science” ?

Spoiler alert: I object to it because it is total and complete crap.

Here’s the methodology that some researchers from the University of Western Australia (GO FIGHTIN’ TRUCKS !) employed:

The study of 1,377 people who visited climate change denial blogs found endorsement of laissez-faire free markets predicted the rejection of climate science and other established scientific facts, such as that HIV causes AIDS or that tobacco smoking causes lung cancer.

Climate denial blogs! Why, that is the same type of impeccable sourcing that Colin Flaherty of WND used to prove that hordes of bloodthirsty black savages are roaming the streets of America laying waste to the property of hardworking whites! Raw Story should be proud – Flaherty is, after all, the gold standard of online-journalistic credibility and integrity.

Hey, jackasses! I’ve taken all of one semester of statistics in my life (social sciences FTW) and even I know how to Google “ selection bias !”

Furthermore, in addition to my semester of statisticatin’, I have something on the order of a decade of scouring right-wing blogs for horror and hilarity under my belt, and I will tell the good folks at Raw Story this much: you could “prove” things that are a lot more frightening and click-grabbing than climate change denial or free-market ideology via this extremely scientific technique.

Personally, I'd go with something related to Reptilians:

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