crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
I was reading an excellent piece in Newsweek as to why some people were quick to believe the lie about health care death panels even after they were informed of the truth:
Some people form and cling to false beliefs about health-care reform (or Obama’s citizenship) despite overwhelming evidence thanks to a mental phenomenon called motivated reasoning, says sociologist Steven Hoffman, visiting assistant professor at the University at Buffalo. “Rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief,” he says, “people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe.” And God knows, in the Internet age there is no dearth of sources to confirm even the most ludicrous claims (my favorite being that the moon landings were faked). “For the most part,” says Hoffman, “people completely ignore contrary information” and are able to “develop elaborate rationalizations based on faulty information.”
And naturally my mind began thinking about those lovely individuals and groups concerned with supposedly winning “America for Christ, ” colloquially known as the religious right.
Specifically, my mind began thinking about a certain conservative bastardization of the popular site Wikipedia.
I’ve written about Conservapedia before; about how the site used repeated and bad information to claim that “gay bowel syndrome” is an actual medical term rather than an antiquated term used to denigrate the lgbt community.
Well this new thing I found on the site tops that one.
This is what Conservapedia says about discredited researcher Paul Cameron:
Dr. Paul Cameron, Ph.D. is a scientist who has presented disturbing information about homosexual behavior in the United States. Professional associations have responded by making vague, unsupported accusations about his personal character.
. . . The APA and ASA have issued statements denouncing Cameron for holding positions contrary to theirs. They have not, however, pointed out any specific flaws in his published peer-reviewed scientific papers. So it is patently obvious that they are trying to suppress his findings for political reasons.
Conservapedia’s explanation is extremely inaccurate.
The APA (American Psychological Association) dismissed Cameron for not cooperating when the group began investigating his research methodology. Various psychologists complained about how he was distorting their data.
I sincerely doubt that Conservapedia did any research into the matter, so to help the site out, I’ve attached the link of the letter from the APA officially dismissing Cameron.
And the (ASA) American Sociological Association denounced Cameron because of his bad research techniques. The group was concerned that Cameron was inaccurately being labeled as a sociologist.
The ASA’s statement came after a task force looked at Cameron’s history and techniques. You can read the findings here. And I might point out, the ASA task force did point to specific flaws regarding Cameron’s work and specific complaints made about him.
The irony of Conservapedia’s whitewash of Cameron is felt when one takes into account one of the guidelines of the site:
Everything you post must be true and verifiable.
I found a bigger irony when I looked over the list of Conservapedia Administrators. A good many of them have on their profile that they “have accepted Jesus Christ as his/her Lord and Savior.”
Apparently they love their version of Christian principles so much that they are willing to lie for them.
Editor’s Note – APA letter and ASA report taken from the webpage of Dr. Gregory Herek.
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Like most RRRW sites, Conservapedia makes its case by giving you only their side of the story or, when citing the work of others, only giving the portion of the story they wish to relate. Then they conveniently leave out any links to sources and presume you’ll just take them at their word. Sadly most like-minded people do so, often because they’ve been raised to.
Comment by Buffy — August 30, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
Here’s a flaw with Cameron’s “published peer-reviewed scientific papers:” They have not, for the most part, been subject to standard peer review nor published in legitimate scientific journals. Mostly he publishes in Psychological Reports, which, contrary to the standards of most journals, charges a fee to authors. Although the journal claims to use peer review, the editor told the Boston Globe that a negative review would not prevent a paper from being published. (What, and cut off a source of revenue?) The fact that he’s managed to slip one or two papers into legitimate journals only raises questions about the quality of their review. Most of his “studies” can be picked apart by an intelligent layman. He uses non-random samples to draw general conclusions, ignores confounding factors, and frankly just makes stuff up. He is not a practicing psychologist, has not had an active license for over 20 years, is not affiliated with any academic institution, and has been denounced by the professional organizations you mentioned. He’s misrepresented his “studies,” for instance claiming one was a paper he gave at a meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, when in fact all that had been accepted by the EPA was a poster that didn’t include the statements he said were central to the paper. He claimed the CDC, which was not the agency responsible, hid data that showed negative information about gay people, when in fact studies based on that data (and coming to different conclusions than his) had already been published. He’s been denounced by a federal judge as someone who engages in “fraud and misrepresentation.” And his studies have been so widely refuted that anybody who relies on them is either too ignorant to engage with or knowingly lying.
Comment by Realist — August 31, 2009 @ 1:46 am
He’s a quack. But why let facts get in the way of a good, anti-gay rant???
Comment by Michael — August 31, 2009 @ 4:47 am
And yet the religious right either:
a. freely cites him or
b. takes his theories and manipulates other studies to try and prove them to be true. An example is his so-called gay life span study. After his work was refuted, several religious right groups distorted a 1997 Oxford study to prove that lie about the supposed short life span of gay men. Luckily, in 2001, the six researchers complained about the distortion of their work. However, like Mike implied, the religious right didn’t let the complaint get in the way of an anti-gay rant. They still distort the 1997 study.
Comment by Alvin McEwen — August 31, 2009 @ 7:19 am
I would suggest to those reading Mr. mcEwen’s
one-sided and inaccurate piece above that you do as I
have and go to Dr. Cameron’s website to get the
other side of the story. Don’t just stop there,
do a thurough seach for the real facts. If you
do this, you will find that Mr.McEwen is not representing the facts accuratly. Rather, it seems
that McEwen is just trying to further his and TWO’s
agenda
Comment by brad anderson — August 31, 2009 @ 3:11 pm
LOL, that’s a good one Brad.
Comment by Priya Lynn — August 31, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
Oh really, Brad? Why don’t you “educate us” on the so-called real facts of the case?
Let me guess. You going to say that Cameron resigned from the APA before they had a chance to dismiss him? Nice try but no dice. He tried to resign when he got wind of the investigation but he was unsuccessful.
And by the way, Cameron even admitted that he was dismissed from the APA during a Feb. 2005 appearance in front of the Virginia legislature. Seems to me if he had resigned, he would have said so rather than admit to being dismissed. – The Star Witness for bill’ sponsor faces harsh criticism from a Senate committee, Daily Press (Virginia) February 17, 2005
Comment by Alvin McEwen — August 31, 2009 @ 6:06 pm
I wonder if brad admires the Nazi tactics of “dealing” with homosexuals (see: Rudolph Hoess) as much as Cameron does. http://web.archive.org/web/20011224220028/http://familyresearchinst.org/FRR_99_03.html#gays
Comment by Emily K — August 31, 2009 @ 6:19 pm
“Dr. Cameron”
LOL!!!!
As if THAT title means anything anymore.
ANYONE with a $5 Wal-Mart bible can call themselves “doctor” nowadays.
Comment by Scott — September 1, 2009 @ 2:03 am
emily
show your proof that cameron admires the
nazi tactics of dealing with homosexuals.
i do wish you people would stop with the nazi
comparisons, but i guess it’s easier to do
that than engage in an intelligent fact based
discussion
Comment by brad anderson — September 2, 2009 @ 1:41 am
Brad, just concentrate on the ASA’s statement that it “repudiated any claims by Paul Cameron to be a sociologist”. Cameron does not ‘do’ sociological research, he does not ‘interpret’ the research of other. He lies and then lies again and then lies again (since he knows full well the scientific distortion behind his conclusions – he may be a liar but is not a moron). For so-called Christians to repeat ad nauseum these lies to justfiy discrimination is I guess sinful for them. Brad we can’t argue with you on the basis of facts, isn’t that obvious? One website link from one side doesn’t trump one website link from the other – its apples and pears. The science on one side and his distortions on the other – it’s like a pea perched on one side of a balance and herd of bison slipping off the other side. OF COURSE we are trying to further an agenda – namely, the elimination of lies about gay poople.
Comment by Paul Mc — September 2, 2009 @ 8:12 am
Brad, Emily did show proof. Cameron’s website cited Rudolf H??ss as an expert authority to justify the view that homosexuals are molesters who can be cured (and imprisoned or executed if the cure fails).
Comment by Mike A — September 2, 2009 @ 9:24 am
Brad, did you not see the link in my comment? The one that has a big swastika on its page?
Oh well. There’s no dealing with “his type of people.”
Comment by Emily K — September 2, 2009 @ 3:31 pm
There are two or three individuals at Conservapedia who are responsible for its most slavering homophobia, but the one responsible for the nonsense about “gay diseases” and disinformation regarding “reparative therapy” is a Conservapedia administrator, Ed Poor, who fled, disgraced, from Wikipedia, when his bid to be resysopped was defeated because of a variety of such exploits there (including creation of a number of “articles” such as “AIDS Kills Fags Dead”).
Ed is a Manhattan-based Moonie devoted to spreading his homophobic lies wherever he can get away with it. He is a big fan of NAARTH and Paul Cameron. I’ve linked to his page on RationalWiki.
Comment by Poor Excuse — September 9, 2009 @ 8:21 pm