Puck's Criticism of Richard Weikart's Book on Racism

More than enough to be outraged over with that, but I will just pick this one passage, and note with irony that many of the supporters of this measure are no doubt among the people accusing my government of descending into brutal dictatorship because it responded to an insurrection in our capital by declaring it an emergency.

SECTION 3. It being immediately necessary for the preservation
of the public peace, health or safety, an emergency is hereby
declared to exist, by reason whereof this act shall take effect and
be in full force from and after its passage and approval.

??!?? There are supporters of an education measure in Oklahoma who follow news up in Canada closely enough to have an opinion on whether the government there is turning into a “brutal dictatorship”? Did they interview some Oklahomans about Canadian events on some news broadcast that I missed?

No doubt a mess in your capital, and one in which numerous traffic laws were violated, and one which warranted fines, towing away of trucks, suspension of driving privileges, expulsion of crowds from the city center, etc. But an “insurrection”? A pretty strong word. Anyone who has lived in a country where there have been “insurrections” would find it somewhat of an exaggeration. A demonstration, admittedly ugly at some points and admittedly illegal and harmful to the economy of a major city, but a demonstration in a capital city in which not a single bomb was detonated, not a single shot was fired, and not a single firearm brandished, counts as an “insurrection”? But I’ll chalk this up to your tendency to give words (such as “creationist”) a wider extent than they normally bear.

If you want to discuss this new subject, start a new topic! This isn’t the place for it.

You’re most welcome.

“Creationism” is rarely employed in works of “academic science” (as opposed works about the social and political aspects of science which may sometimes be written by scientists). Read through actual technical science journals and technical science books and let me know how often anyone mentions “creationism.”

Academic philosophers also rarely write about “creationism,” and quite often they do not use the phrase “intelligent design creationism”. For example, neither Del Ratzsch, one of the most-cited philosophers on the subject of design, doesn’t use that combination in his famous book on design. Nor does Rope Kojonen, in his major analysis of intelligent design. Indeed, if you go down the list of “academic philosophers” who have written about “intelligent design creationism”, you will find that almost all of them are either themselves heavily politically involved in culture-war conflict (e.g., at the Dover trial) or are quoting from or borrowing phrases from those who are.

False, and demonstrably so. All the reasons you give for maintaining this falsehood have been amply refuted here in earlier discussions.

Only among people who already have a vicious prejudice against anything they say. The vast majority of people who would make that extreme statement are concentrated on internet blog sites dominated by atheists, or are members of the NCSE (which produces not a shred of new science, only political activism), and other such organizations.

I read several pieces of Weikart that are available on the internet. Whether I read the particular piece you posted (only a fragment of a book) is irrelevant, since my point all along has been that entire books should be read, so that all the nuances and qualifications in the argument can be noted, before judgment is passed on the book. All academics outside of the natural sciences, in humanities and social science subjects where academics have attention spans long enough to read whole books, know and understand this.

I repeat, for the apparently deaf, that I have not said that any of Weikart’s theses are true or have been demonstrated by him. I said only that people who were unwilling to read the whole argument of one of his books are not in an intellectual position to pass judgment on the soundness of the argument of the book. They can decide, based on an excerpt, that the book is not interesting or not convincing, and opt not to read it; that’s fine. But they should not lay down declarations about the value of the book in the tone of the Ten Commandments, which is pretty much what happened here.

Let’s now end this pointless discussion about books which no one here has read, except one person who read one book by the author in question, years ago, and by his own admission doesn’t even recall whether or not he finished it.

That would carry more force if you hadn’t preceded it with along post discussing the new subject. Word to the wise.

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Merely breaking traffic and parking laws doesn’t count as an “insurrection” in any normal conversation. Merely honking horns doesn’t count as an “insurrection.” The odd person (a tiny, tiny minority of those gathered in Ottawa) holding up a sign saying “F— Trudeau” does not count as an “insurrection.” A single individual urinating on or near a monument (if that actually happened) does not constitute an “insurrection.” It’s obvious you have no large amount of background reading in history or political science.

Even the synonyms and sample sentences on M-W should have told you this. But of course, you will defend a bad choice of words to the hilt, rather than withdraw or modify an inaccurate expression; it’s your standard M.O.

After we read the single book, you will require us to read all of Weikart’s books. After we read all of Weikart’s books, you will require us to read all of the books on the subject. On and on it goes.

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Here you go, “Eddie”. Type the words “intelligent design creationism” into the search box and see what comes up. If you don’t know what PubMed is, ask someone in the science department:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

I guess you missed the link? Here, I will quote the definition in full as given there:

an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.

Any words there that you also need defined?

No, after you read the single book (which you won’t; you never do, as a result of these discussions over authors you have decided in advance are wrong), I would say that you are entitled to comment on what Weikart actually argues in the book and what evidence he marshals in the book. You would no longer be relying on hearsay for those things. You still might lack enough historical knowledge to render a credible verdict on whether or not his theses are correct, but you would at least have the knowledge to inform others correctly about what he says, and the reasons he gives for saying it. That would be an improvement on the position you are in now.

Baloney. You always come up with an excuse to avoid addressing other people’s findings.

Which is not what happened in Ottawa. It is what used to happen in Northern Ireland; it’s what happened in Spain when terrorists blew up a railway station to frighten their government into withdrawing from the Iraq war. Your use of the extreme term “insurrection” is demagogical in effect, if not in intention. English is just not your subject. If you want to discuss the Canadian situation, start a new topic; I was merely making a comment (again) on your misuse of language.

You always come up with an excuse to avoid reading entire books, especially books which offer points of view different from your own.

We will try to make a note of the OK license plates when the caravan comes to DC.

“Under siege” is of course a metaphor, used to create an exaggerated impression. No catapults were aimed at the Parliament buildings, no attempt was made to starve out the MPs, etc. Nor were ladders leaned against the walls of government buildings, nor was hot oil poured down on the protestors. A good part of the daily activity of the protestors was barbecuing on public lawns, playing games with the kids they brought with them, etc. I gather that you know very little about siege warfare. But that’s not a surprise.

The term “nation-wide insurrection” was also used, and not as a metaphor. But you have nothing to say about that, I guess…

An ironic statement, coming from one who undoubtedly concurs with the typical Fox News depiction of BLM protests.

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It wasn’t “nation-wide,” in the normal sense of that word, and it wasn’t an insurrection. A few bridges were blocked by truckers for a time, in selected provinces with border crossings. Those blockades were all cleared using normal provincial powers without need of the emergency legislation. There were no military or quasi-military assaults on provincial parliament buildings. There were some negative regional economic effects, due to blockage of commercial truck traffic at the border crossings, and those were significant, but again, that was dealt with using normal local and provincial police and court powers. Truckers involved in the bridge blockades have had trucks confiscated, licenses suspended, have been fined, have in some cases been put in jail, etc. The provincial and local authorities did their jobs at the bridges.

What happened was ugly, and harmful to the economic and social well-being of the people of Ottawa. The behavior of the truckers and of some of the hangers-on, in staying so long, far beyond what was necessary to make their protest about a particular policy, was reprehensible and highly disruptive to commerce and peace and quiet. But it wasn’t an “insurrection”, and the use of such hot-button words is demagogical in effect, if not in intent.

In any case, Trudeau revoked the emergency powers only two days after they were confirmed by Parliament, and already by the time they were confirmed by Parliament, the blockades at the bridges were gone and the situation in Ottawa had greatly improved, so on the scale of historical “insurrections”, this one ranks pretty low.

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Since I never watch Fox News, I don’t know what the typical depiction is, so I can hardly concur with it – at least not intentionally.