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http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html It's disappointing to see someone avoid addre

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html It's disappointing to see someone avoid addressing every single one of the issues raised in the original article, and instead focusing on attacking the author. Would you care to address any of the points he made in the original article?

skrebbel 13y ago
Why is it disappointing? There's plenty of people here who address the original point. Knowing more about the author and his motives is useful information.
- duncan_bayne 13y ago
  It wouldn't have been disappointing had DanBC posted it as an FYI - in the sense of "be careful to check this guy's claims; he has falsified data in the past." But what he wrote was: "Disappointing to see this worthless tripe on HN, and to see it getting any votes." That is an ad-hominem attack, and disappointing to see on HN.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    I don't want people to be careful when checking that guy's claims. I want people to not waste their time bothering to check that guy's claims. Scientists gather data and form an opinion. This guy has an opinion before he sees any data; he's paid at least 40% of his funding for having that opinion; and then manipulates data to fit that opinion. He misrepresents other people's work and other people's opinions. If he had lied once or twice then perhaps there's some useful information to be had by carefully checking what he's saying. But the pattern is so strong that people can safely ignore him. Just as we ignore the time-cube guy, or people who use phrases like quantum touch healing.
    - duncan_bayne 13y ago
      "I want people to not waste their time bothering to check that guy's claims." That is pretty much the definition of an ad-hominem attack. Your criticisms of his approach are valid, but also apply to a good number of climatologists whose income is more dependent upon pro-AGW funding this his is dependent upon oil company funding. Glass houses, stones, etc. FWIW, my position is that correlation between human activity and climate change has (finally) been solidly established, but: - our models lack any real predictive ability w.r.t. future climate, except to say "interesting stuff will happen." - catastrophic climate change happens regardless of human input Given the above two points I'm unconvinced that there's any AGW-based argument for legislation. Argument based on atmospheric pollution harming human life? Sure. Instead, we should be focusing on growing our technological and academic capacity towards climate engineering. Regardless of what AGW brings, at some point in our history, we will need to tweak the climate to survive.
DanBC 13y ago
>Would you care to address any of the points he made in the original article? No. He is paid to produce FUD. He is repeating a well known pattern of disruption that was pioneered by tobacco companies. He has a track record for lying, for manipulating other people's research, for misrepresenting other people's views. I'm not going to waste any time with people who are so intellectually dishonest and who are being paid to waste my time; people who are paid to spread misinformation and confusion.

skrebbel 13y ago

Why is it disappointing? There's plenty of people here who address the original point. Knowing more about the author and his motives is useful information.

duncan_bayne 13y ago
It wouldn't have been disappointing had DanBC posted it as an FYI - in the sense of "be careful to check this guy's claims; he has falsified data in the past." But what he wrote was: "Disappointing to see this worthless tripe on HN, and to see it getting any votes." That is an ad-hominem attack, and disappointing to see on HN.
- DanBC 13y ago
  I don't want people to be careful when checking that guy's claims. I want people to not waste their time bothering to check that guy's claims. Scientists gather data and form an opinion. This guy has an opinion before he sees any data; he's paid at least 40% of his funding for having that opinion; and then manipulates data to fit that opinion. He misrepresents other people's work and other people's opinions. If he had lied once or twice then perhaps there's some useful information to be had by carefully checking what he's saying. But the pattern is so strong that people can safely ignore him. Just as we ignore the time-cube guy, or people who use phrases like quantum touch healing.
  - duncan_bayne 13y ago
    "I want people to not waste their time bothering to check that guy's claims." That is pretty much the definition of an ad-hominem attack. Your criticisms of his approach are valid, but also apply to a good number of climatologists whose income is more dependent upon pro-AGW funding this his is dependent upon oil company funding. Glass houses, stones, etc. FWIW, my position is that correlation between human activity and climate change has (finally) been solidly established, but: - our models lack any real predictive ability w.r.t. future climate, except to say "interesting stuff will happen." - catastrophic climate change happens regardless of human input Given the above two points I'm unconvinced that there's any AGW-based argument for legislation. Argument based on atmospheric pollution harming human life? Sure. Instead, we should be focusing on growing our technological and academic capacity towards climate engineering. Regardless of what AGW brings, at some point in our history, we will need to tweak the climate to survive.

DanBC 13y ago

>Would you care to address any of the points he made in the original article? No. He is paid to produce FUD. He is repeating a well known pattern of disruption that was pioneered by tobacco companies. He has a track record for lying, for manipulating other people's research, for misrepresenting other people's views. I'm not going to waste any time with people who are so intellectually dishonest and who are being paid to waste my time; people who are paid to spread misinformation and confusion.