I chatted with Kyle Platt of Liberty.me about the consequences of superstition and pseudoscience that I outlined in my article “What’s the Harm?”. We talked liberal science denial, bad bureaucracy, and the dreaminess of Matthew McConaughey. Video and brief excerpts below.
KP: You say the cost of [scientific] misinformation is too large to ignore, and that it’s “a holocaust of ignorance.” Is this hyperbole or do you believe this is seriously one of the most pressing issues in the world today?
DB: I called it “genocidal stupidity,” and I really do mean that literally. When we’re talking about the misinformation being spread in Africa about condoms, about HIV/AIDS, about vaccines, about antiretroviral drugs, and a host of other important medical and scientific questions–not only the developing world, but even in the United States and Europe–we are talking about matters of life and death.
These really are questions where the wrong answers will kill millions of children. And they are. And that is something that we cannot simply ignore, or say that it’s not our problem, or that being confrontational about it–or even talking about it–is too divisive, because it might offend some people. I think I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t really care about offending people as much as telling the truth.