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Politically Incorrect Guides
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science
"If the globe is warming, is mankind responsible, or is the sun?" Such a statement does not appear out of place in Bethell's entertaining account of how modern science is politically motivated and in desperate need of oversight. Bethell writes in a compulsively readable style, and although he provides legitimate insight into the potential benefits of nuclear power and hormesis, some readers will be turned off when he attempts to disprove global warming and especially evolution. Throughout the book, Bethell makes questionable claims about subjects as varied as AIDS ("careful U.S. studies had already shown that at least a thousand sexual contacts are needed to achieve heterosexual transmission of the virus") and extinction ("It is not possible definitely to attribute any given extinction to human activity"), and backs up his arguments with references to the music magazine SPIN and thriller-writer Michael Crichton. Ironically, Bethell ends up proving his own premise by producing a highly politicized account of how liberal intellectuals and unchecked government agencies have created a "white-coated priesthood" whose lust for grant money has driven them to produce fearsome (but in Bethell's view, false) tales of ozone destruction and AIDS pandemics. In the end, this book is unlikely to sway readers who aren't already in Bethell's ideological camp, as any points worthy of discussion get lost in the glut of unsourced claims that populate this latest installment of "The Politically Incorrect Guide" series.
270 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
10 people are currently reading
344 people want to read
About the author
Tom Bethell
16 books13 followersTom Bethell is a senior editor at the American Spectator. He has contributed to many publications, including the New York Times magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Crisis, and National Review. He writes often on science. Tom Wolfe has called Bethell “one of our most brilliant essayists.”
Bethell was born and raised in England and graduated from Oxford University in 1962 with a degree in philosophy, physiology, and psychology. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Bethell was born and raised in England and graduated from Oxford University in 1962 with a degree in philosophy, physiology, and psychology. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 18, 2012
Welcome to a bizarro universe where evolution is a hoax perpetrated by a secretive Darwinist cabal, climate change is no more than a deceitful hoax, Rachel Carson murdered more people than Hitler, and AIDS epidemics are scams cooked up by the government. Bethell seems content to dredge up any old crank to support his views, including a bevy of creationists from that noted font of scientific integrity, the Discovery Institute. At one point, he relies on Michael Crichton as his "expert" on environmental science. Yes, a science fiction author is his authority on said issues. I'm not even sure as to how much of what is presented here advances a "conservative" agenda; it seems that Bethell is just railing against scientists for the hell of it in many places. Apparently, this crackpot went so far as to deny Einstein's theory of relativity after he finished this travesty. I am not making that up:
http://johnwfarrell.blogspot.com/2010...
http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2007...
Politically incorrect? Try factually and scientifically incorrect.
http://johnwfarrell.blogspot.com/2010...
http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2007...
Politically incorrect? Try factually and scientifically incorrect.
September 15, 2009
A wonderful read correcting the fallacies surrounding the science community. Helpful to identify falsehoods in the science propaganda machine.
January 10, 2022
This is full conspiracy bullshit. If you told me that Tom Bethell was now a QAnon bitch, I wouldn't be even slightly surprised.
July 11, 2018
I would have given this book 5 stars if it was longer. But it took on too much important stuff.
Yes, scientism is a club that doesn't take kindly to anyone doubting its sacred claims. Like all industries - science can't stand to have its corporate political funding cut (or even lowered). Imagine someone closing entire divisions of Universities or calling back published books because a serious error was found? Nobody likes to be out of work or lose their home. Or have their favorite tv show corrected or laughed at.
Which reminds me: has anybody seen Bill Nye's SEX JUNK transgender comedy embarrassment? Yep, this might be the first example of somebodies celebrity funding being quickly removed by liberals even. Shows that politically correct people have their limits.
This book deals with some serious science issues that many would rather NOT be brought up. Science is done by regular people after all. Sure, some of them are highly educated (so they assume), but that's like saying people in Hollywood with decades of experience are incapable of producing pathetically bad movies. But...
More to come.
Yes, scientism is a club that doesn't take kindly to anyone doubting its sacred claims. Like all industries - science can't stand to have its corporate political funding cut (or even lowered). Imagine someone closing entire divisions of Universities or calling back published books because a serious error was found? Nobody likes to be out of work or lose their home. Or have their favorite tv show corrected or laughed at.
Which reminds me: has anybody seen Bill Nye's SEX JUNK transgender comedy embarrassment? Yep, this might be the first example of somebodies celebrity funding being quickly removed by liberals even. Shows that politically correct people have their limits.
This book deals with some serious science issues that many would rather NOT be brought up. Science is done by regular people after all. Sure, some of them are highly educated (so they assume), but that's like saying people in Hollywood with decades of experience are incapable of producing pathetically bad movies. But...
More to come.
February 26, 2021
Awful garbage. All the books in this series are Republican Conspiracy Theorist Propaganda. I accidentally picked this book up many years ago at Border's. Wish I had have never laughed at the title.
July 16, 2025
Years ago, I opened my Goodreads account based on the dubious advice of a college advisor. Noticing my distinct lack of social media presence, she concernedly queried whether I had recently scrubbed my accounts due to inappropriate content. Upon hearing that I had never had much of a social media presence and that I actively disliked technology, she swiftly cut me off to extol the virtues of LinkedIn and the necessity of a vibrant and positive social media presence to become gainfully employed in my profession. In retrospect, I think she may have been getting kickbacks from LinkedIn, because she had the devotion exhibited only by true believers and paid accomplices. Anyways, I showed her my scanty LinkedIn account, carefully crafted during a mandatory tech. class, and she struggled to find compliments for my herculean efforts in A-grade, nondescript sparsity. Eventually, she gave up and decided to convince me to create a Goodreads account instead.
For a few years, I dutifully, periodically, updated my account with my most appropriate reads, trying to maintain a casual, career-guided, detachment. Eventually, I unbent and began writing reviews solely for myself, abandoning my professional demeanor with my profession, verging on vitriolic. Finally, I've found a balance between distance and diatribes and feel that I can now say what I think and post all that I read without apology or apoplexy, all of which being an extremely roundabout way to get to my declaration that while I thoroughly enjoy learning more about alternative ways of thinking, I've listened to better arguments for the perspectives shared in this book (even the ones that I've ultimately rejected.) If you can get past the salacious title and cover, it's a nice introduction to less-shared worldviews, but it certainly isn't a groundbreaking or weighty tome.
For a few years, I dutifully, periodically, updated my account with my most appropriate reads, trying to maintain a casual, career-guided, detachment. Eventually, I unbent and began writing reviews solely for myself, abandoning my professional demeanor with my profession, verging on vitriolic. Finally, I've found a balance between distance and diatribes and feel that I can now say what I think and post all that I read without apology or apoplexy, all of which being an extremely roundabout way to get to my declaration that while I thoroughly enjoy learning more about alternative ways of thinking, I've listened to better arguments for the perspectives shared in this book (even the ones that I've ultimately rejected.) If you can get past the salacious title and cover, it's a nice introduction to less-shared worldviews, but it certainly isn't a groundbreaking or weighty tome.
May 8, 2012
This book thoroughly demonstrates the extent to which science has become politicized. It also shows how the pursuit of government funding has greatly eliminated healthy competition among ideas, and how it has caused science to become generally more alarmist. This book feels almost unreal because author Tom Bethell attacks a lot of notions that have by now become firmly embedded in the country's political psyche. The only problem is that each chapter wrestles with topics big enough to fill an entire book in and of themselves, so you sometimes feel like you're getting the cliff notes version.
July 7, 2012
Very uneven in quality. Like a good journalist, Bethell "fiendishly quotes exactly what you said"* proving that science, like anything else, is highly politicized and that scientists, like any other group of people, are frequently irrational. Had he stuck mainly to politics and scientific hubris I think he would have been biting and witty even. Instead, he comes off like your annoying, opinionated friend who is excitedly explaining his soap box theories. In the end, it's a mixed bag with most of the true insight coming in the form of quotes from other people.
*Terry Pratchett, who else?
*Terry Pratchett, who else?
March 18, 2008
Covers a mess of hot button topics, and tells you tons of other great books to read for more information on them, thus serving as a great launching pad. Is it a great book, though? No, because not every topic is covered as well as it could be. It' for the most part a good read, though. It gives you enough to help figure out which topics really interest you, and where to go with that.
June 16, 2018
This book is definitely politically incorrect, that's for sure, and it manages to avoid the blind hostility to empirical fact that one would fear upon picking up a book like this one. Make no mistake, though, about the way this book pummels politically expedient but inaccurate scientific theory throughout its slightly more than 200 pages of material. I found it enjoyable to read [1] and I agreed with the author's perspective, but not everyone is going to enjoy this book's approach to science. That said, this is definitely a book that I can wholeheartedly endorse and that I enjoyed reading, especially given the way the authors pointed out how government funding and the lack of connection between progress and empirical viability and public support of science ends to a great deal of waste and the corruption of science by political concerns. The author does a great service in mythbusting some of the cherished illusions that are held about the scientific enterprise in contemporary American society and the way that bad science has often been used to support political worldviews as well as give a veneer of respectability to inaccurate views.
After an introduction about the lure of politics to science, the contents of this book are divided into fourteen chapters. The author begins with a thorough and somewhat entertaining debunking of global warming (1), discusses the issue of nuclear energy (2), and the virtues of low amounts of radiation (3) as well as low amounts of what are often considered toxic chemicals like dioxin (4). He discusses the negative effects of the ban on DDT (5) and argues that the best way to preserve biodiversity is to turn endangered species into commodities that bring a benefit to people (6). He talks about the political epidemic of AIDS (7), and the follies and problems of cloning (8) and stem cell research (9). The author waxes pessimistic on the possibilities of the genome map (10) as well as the supposed genetic basis of cancer (11). He, quite amusingly, discusses the origins of the myth that the Middle Age was full of B.O.B.-chanting flat-earthers (12) and spends a couple of chapters talking about Darwinism (13) and the missing evidence that improves the case for intelligent design (14). Overall, this book will be best appreciated by those who have the same sort of economic and political worldview of the authors, and who lament the waste and distortion of money that invents crises in order to encourage public spending.
Central to the author's approach to science is a vigorous defense of empiricism and an abiding mistrust of the way that politics distorts good science by funding what is expedient or convenient to the agendas of those in power rather than that which is true. The author shows himself to be someone with a deep mistrust of certainty and a willingness to accept the uncertainty that encourages a variety of views rather than a mistaken view that we know things that we in fact do not know, wasting resources and causing a great deal of harm. There are at least a few things that I learned from reading this book, including a concept I had been unfamiliar with before, namely that of hormesis, which is likely something that I will write about in the future. Anytime a book can provide me with some sort of insight I was unfamiliar with before is something to be appreciated, and this is a book whose skepticism is justified by the human and material cost of the sort of politicized science that can cause real harm in the real world by neglecting that which can help serious problems or by following the wrong trails to the public health problems we face in the contemporary world.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
After an introduction about the lure of politics to science, the contents of this book are divided into fourteen chapters. The author begins with a thorough and somewhat entertaining debunking of global warming (1), discusses the issue of nuclear energy (2), and the virtues of low amounts of radiation (3) as well as low amounts of what are often considered toxic chemicals like dioxin (4). He discusses the negative effects of the ban on DDT (5) and argues that the best way to preserve biodiversity is to turn endangered species into commodities that bring a benefit to people (6). He talks about the political epidemic of AIDS (7), and the follies and problems of cloning (8) and stem cell research (9). The author waxes pessimistic on the possibilities of the genome map (10) as well as the supposed genetic basis of cancer (11). He, quite amusingly, discusses the origins of the myth that the Middle Age was full of B.O.B.-chanting flat-earthers (12) and spends a couple of chapters talking about Darwinism (13) and the missing evidence that improves the case for intelligent design (14). Overall, this book will be best appreciated by those who have the same sort of economic and political worldview of the authors, and who lament the waste and distortion of money that invents crises in order to encourage public spending.
Central to the author's approach to science is a vigorous defense of empiricism and an abiding mistrust of the way that politics distorts good science by funding what is expedient or convenient to the agendas of those in power rather than that which is true. The author shows himself to be someone with a deep mistrust of certainty and a willingness to accept the uncertainty that encourages a variety of views rather than a mistaken view that we know things that we in fact do not know, wasting resources and causing a great deal of harm. There are at least a few things that I learned from reading this book, including a concept I had been unfamiliar with before, namely that of hormesis, which is likely something that I will write about in the future. Anytime a book can provide me with some sort of insight I was unfamiliar with before is something to be appreciated, and this is a book whose skepticism is justified by the human and material cost of the sort of politicized science that can cause real harm in the real world by neglecting that which can help serious problems or by following the wrong trails to the public health problems we face in the contemporary world.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
July 12, 2019
Um livro que me deu muito no que pensar. Será certamente fonte de muita leitura adicional
November 3, 2020
uncommon knowledge in this book. makes you smarter. move away from herd thinking.
April 7, 2021
Everything is a conspiracy theory in this book... especially the writer itself
September 3, 2023
Occasional intriguing chapters are unable to overcome the odium of a book that traffics in AIDS denial. I junked my copy.
July 6, 2017
I'm giving this book a four because it reveals some amazing truths about our world and how humans are managing this unbelievable planet we live on.
Unfortunately, we now exist in a world where 100% is affected by politics. Half the people will reject this book immediately as right wing propaganda, and I, although conservative, must be wise enough to realize that this author also had an agenda. He wrote what HE believes.
In conclusion, I highly recommend it to all - intelligent design, evolution, theology - each gets its moments and I'm confident that anyone who reads this book will come away feeling much more knowledgeable about our existence.
Thanks for reading my comments.
Unfortunately, we now exist in a world where 100% is affected by politics. Half the people will reject this book immediately as right wing propaganda, and I, although conservative, must be wise enough to realize that this author also had an agenda. He wrote what HE believes.
In conclusion, I highly recommend it to all - intelligent design, evolution, theology - each gets its moments and I'm confident that anyone who reads this book will come away feeling much more knowledgeable about our existence.
Thanks for reading my comments.
May 30, 2012
I'm giving this book such a high rating not because of the writing style but because of the content. This book illustrates quite well how science, like so many other areas of modern life, have been corrupted for political goals. Methodology has been turned on it's head by deciding in advance the outcome and then trying to make the science support the false premise. Money is a huge motivating factor, too. from global warming to cancer research, this book does a good job of skewering the false results and end based methodology that is ruining science as we know it and preventing progress.
August 23, 2007
This book covers different science topics and how what one might have taught in school could be different when approached differently.
One example is that the book explains how DDT was banned in the 1970s, and why it shouldn't have been.
Another example is the popular belief that the Church in the middle ages thought the world was flat. This book explains how and why most people and the church did not hold this view and how this view came into popular culture.
One example is that the book explains how DDT was banned in the 1970s, and why it shouldn't have been.
Another example is the popular belief that the Church in the middle ages thought the world was flat. This book explains how and why most people and the church did not hold this view and how this view came into popular culture.
August 25, 2011
A fun book about how science funded by the feds leads to bad science. And how media frenzy drives people to contact government asking them to do something. All a case of follow the money to find out what really is happening. This book will probably make more than a few people angry as it tries to stay out of political sides while trying to finger point at specific politicians. I also recommend other books in the politically incorrect series.
June 16, 2008
It's just a book of facts and "lecturing" so it's not like exiting or anything, but after reading "Silent Spring" I needed something to set me straight. It's great because Silent Spring is all very poetic assumptions, while this book tells you how it is. After reading it, I never gave Rachel Carson's crap another thought.
January 31, 2008
A lot to take in, but worth the effort. Like so many of these guides, it is a great jumping-off point. The more in-depth, scholarly studies will be vastly more understandable and readable with this as an introduction.
December 27, 2010
The ghost of Lysenko permeates government-funded science research, which is the larger theme of this book. If your sources of information on subjects like global warming or stem cell research is the main stream press, than everything you were told or think you know is wrong.
January 19, 2011
Rather uneven, especially in its weak and unconvincing final chapters, but by and large the work provides more than sufficient support for its call for a "Woodward and Bernstein" in the scientific arena.
March 29, 2008
Ditto the Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming.
March 11, 2010
I tend to just love any Politically incorrect guide to any subject. This is a really good book. It gets a little technical but if you can get past some "big" words it really worth the read.
April 13, 2012
A good introduction to opposing viewpoints not taught in politically correct government schools. Fun to read even if you don't agree.
February 15, 2013
Steps on lots of pop-culture scientific toes.
May 1, 2015
nice book for those that like science!
March 26, 2015
A real eye-opener to all the mainstream media propaganda (lies) we are subjected to.
July 27, 2015
good to think about...
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews