Fuck you, Randy Olson
21 April 2008 by The Uncredible Hallq
Last month, talking about the latest blowup in the Myers/Nisbet fight over framing, I wrote:
Now, when your opponent refuses to so much as engage in honest debate with you, you do have the option of explaining to the world once again why they’re wrong to do so, but a good “fuck you” really isn’t out of line.
Though I thought PZ was justified in what he said, I didn’t quite know first hand the hopeless anger he was feeling. Until today.
What triggered it? It was seeing this post by Chris Mooney. It starts off with a disingenuous “I merely report the facts” on the creationist documentary Expelled’s supposed success, and then follows up with a clearly editorializing “update” which says “Randy Olson, with whom I just went to see Expelled* here in LA, has more on why this film counts as a major success for the anti-evolution forces.” Follow the link to Olson’s post, and what do I see?:
To counter the blockbuster power of Expelled,* the National Science Foundation, NAS and AAAS are organizing a panel discussion about putting together a committee to look into the possibility of creating a brochure that tells the public how to make a website for a petition that says evolution is fun.
True, to my knowledge, the three mentioned organizations didn’t do much, but pro-science folks who specialize in fighting creationism have been doing everything they can to take on Expelled, first and foremost by creating and promoting a website that debunks the movies bogus claims (i.e. the site I’ve already linked three times in this post), but also posting independent criticisms of it. Olson’s post, along with the weird post script “Ben Stein says evolution is for losers, and nobody seems to be able to answer him,” mainly serve to denigrate what defenders of evolution have been doing. As with Nisbet, the main purpose seems to be self aggrandizement: Olson’s claim to fame is having made a movie about what bad communicators scientists are, and is clearly enjoying his “I told you so” moment.
Here’s some meta-constructive criticism for Olson: Go ahead, say you think more needs to be done to combat the lies peddled in Expelled. Go ahead, campaign to get the NSF, the NAS, and the AAAS to back what the NSCE is doing. Offer help to atheist student groups in organizing anti-Expelled events. Especially the Minnesota Group, they rock. [Though our rocking prowess doesn't match theirs, the group I'm involved with has spent time discussing Expelled with Christians.] Hold an emergency brainstorming session for internet activists, with emphasis on the emergency. [GisF readers: feel free to use this comments thread to brainstorm.] Use your knowledge of film making to create a short parody for YouTube. [Same goes for anyone reading this who does YouTube stuff.] But don’t denigrate hard-working defenders of evolution trying to fight Expelled. Don’t let what should be constructive criticism degenerate into fratricide.
*Needless to say, these links did not appear in the original Mooney/Nisbet posts.
21 April 2008, on 4:41 am
Nisbet and Mooney both seem to be a little bit off on things here… As for Randy Olson - I’m not sure “Flock of Dodos” was a prime example of great mass communication. I’d go into profanities mslf here, but the way my mind works I would probably end up offending myself! It seem to me as though sticking to the truth is the only course to take if it is the truth that you are trying to promote. “Expelled” will go the way of the Dodo and Ben Stein may just live to see the day when a majority of americans have accepted a concept so proven and obvious as evolution.
21 April 2008, on 9:31 am
Thanks for posting about this. I started to put together and Anti-Expelled or Expelled Exposed post but didn’t get around to it.
I think everyone needs to go to Expelled Exposed and SET BEN STRAIGHT.
21 April 2008, on 10:34 am
UH:
I don’t know about Randy Olson (is he kin to Perry White’s love child, Jimmy Olson?) but “Expelled” got some reviews that were not so kind.
William Yelverton has a round-up of same over at “Loose TN Canon” (yes that is “Canon” with one “n”). Are people like Stein and Michael Fucking Medved just trying to find some way to claw their way back into the realm of releavance? If so, I’d say they picked a couple of bad strategeries.
21 April 2008, on 11:39 am
Success!?*? Bwaaaahahaha.
The movie took in 1.2 million in 1052 theaters. figuring a low ticket price of $7.50 per person that is about 150 people per theater. Considering most chains have at least 3-5 showings per day for the Friday, Sat. Sunday showings that means at most 10 to 20 people per showing.
This is not a raging success. This is not even a minor success.
Cult movies opening in 200 theaters have greater success.
This is total bomb, what a stinker failure. Yank this and send it to the $9.99 straight to DVD bargain bin level of failure.
21 April 2008, on 1:06 pm
Is there a word for taking pride in one’s own stupidity and ignorance?
A large chunk of Americans suffer from this condition - feeling good about themselves because they are not informed or intelligent. ( Can’t trust those smart folk, their always using big words and talking about things we’ve never seen or heard about ).
21 April 2008, on 1:19 pm
Suzy Q says the movie didn’t do well in its opening weekend. I read that the producers were releasing it heavily in red rural fundie areas so that its grosses would look great.
Guess that backfired.
Someone should have told them that intellectually incurious people don’t go in for documentaries - it seems not even those that don’t contain any actual facts.
21 April 2008, on 1:26 pm
There’s nothing like deliberate ignorance to make my blood boil. But the creationist idiots are some kind of special aren’t they? And I do mean ’short bus’ special.
My seven year old autistic nephew understands evolution. What’s up with the fundies? Did their gord just not give them enough brains or is this another one of those mystical challenges that the magic invisible passive aggressive douche bag in the sky hands them daily?
Forget ‘expelled’ it’s a steaming pile that even the most uninformed can smell from a mile away. It won’t even make it to the 9.99 bargain bin. It’ll go straight to the “3 for 1$” bin.
It’s not actually a bin. They just put the price on a garbage can and put it on display.
21 April 2008, on 1:35 pm
Re: the movie’s performance
The argument of Mooney, Olson, et. al. is that it’s done well for a documentary. However, there have been so few documentaries that could be considered successful in any meaningful sense that I don’t think this says much.
21 April 2008, on 1:42 pm
UH:
I don’t know about that. I thought “The Ten Commandmutts” and “The Passion of the KKKrist” were exceptionally well done. Nobody has as deft a touch with the truth as Cecil B. DeMille or Mel Gibscum.
21 April 2008, on 7:12 pm
Hey — whoever you are. Somebody sent me this link. I’ve been holding off making a post about how no one from the Discovery Institute, no creationists, or intelligent designers have ever used foul language or insulted me in their critiques of my movie, Flock of Dodos. But look at what you’re doing here. Honestly. And also, I didn’t say anything denigrating to NCSE and their efforts (Genie Scott is in our DVD extras). But the fact that the major science organizations are not answering this mass media assault with any efforts towards equal and opposite mass media is worthy of a little bit of sarcasm. So lighten up.
22 April 2008, on 1:12 am
Randy:
I’ve been re-reading things you’ve written elsewhere, trying to better grasp your angle, and I confess I’m baffled. Your insistence that you really do support the NCSE, and a couple other remarks, make you sound reasonable, but the bulk of what you’ve said on this subject is to the effect of UNMITIGATED DISASTER! OUR RESPONSE IS NO GOOD! (Another example: your comparison of the response to a baseball team that spends its time criticizing other teams, as if this fight is about an agreed-upon numerical figure rather than winning arguments.)
22 April 2008, on 1:12 am
PS: So I ask again, what gives?
22 April 2008, on 7:30 am
Randy Olson:
I guarantee you all those wonderful KKKristian folks think “Fuck you!” just as often as the rest of us. In line with their public stance of giving a shit about anyone who’s not in their particular circle of delusion they just have the same control of their oral sphincters as they do of their anal sphincters.
22 April 2008, on 3:57 pm
The argument of Mooney, Olson, et. al. is that it’s done well for a documentary.
It has not done well for a documentary with a heavy marketing push. If it were a tiny film like Murderball or Street Fight, it would be a remarkable performance. But it had a fairly wide opening and is nowhere near the performance seen for Fahrenheit 9/11 or March of the Penguins. Expelled is failure, plain and simple.
23 April 2008, on 2:55 am
I have heard several podcasts (I think the latest was the Scientific American podcast with Eugenie Scott) where many people have said that some organizations (such as the AAAS, I think) are not really the best organizations to respond to this tripe. The NCSE, an education oriented group, is the perfect one. Others focus on real science, and this isn’t. So I am not sure that other groups should address the movie. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t support science education, but for some, that is not their real focus nor should it be.
It’s late, so I apologize if that doesn’t make too much sense.
23 April 2008, on 8:38 pm
Nope, makes perfect sense.
24 April 2008, on 5:15 pm
Randy, dude, I don’t know what communication skills you have or haven’t under your belt, but comparing a site entitled “God is for Suckers” to the Discovery Institute is, well, pretty off the mark.
We’re not here to make nice with anybody, certainly not anyone who rather than sticking to the issues - “IDiocy/creationism is not science; cdesign proponentists are not scientists; Expelled! is a crapfest of the first order and here’s why” - instead makes a point of publicly nitpicking scientists’ communication skills and/or lack thereof, as well as prognosticating their failure. If we think someone, anyone, including one of “our own” if you like, is full of shit, we say so. It’s our thing.
There are plenty of atheist / agnostic / freethinker / skeptic / science-oriented sites that take a more diplomatic approach than we do, and that’s fine; we happen to think there’s room in the blogosphere for all of us. And let me tell you, when shit like Expelled! happens around us, and we’re told to not say anything if we don’t have anything nice to say (a rule which the vast majority of us on this site follow most of the time in the “real world,” anyway), sometimes what we really need the most is a safe place to let off some steam and let loose a hearty “Fuck You!” among well-adjusted adults who understand where we’re coming from.
24 April 2008, on 9:22 pm
Eve:
I agree with everything you said except, the hearty “Fuck You!” is okay with me it is said to people who don’t understand if they are the ones who are causing the angst.
25 April 2008, on 4:00 pm
^ Point taken!