PZ Myers. 2005 Dec 24. P. Z. Myers: on the Enemies List!. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/p_z_myers_on_the_enemies_list/>. Accessed 2006 Feb 19.
Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Saturday, December 24, 2005
P. Z. Myers: on the Enemies List!
The Discovery Institute really hates me. They've published that breathtakingly inane Klinghoffer article in my home town newspaper (Hi, Mom!), and they've put up a snide whine about my university.
University of Minnesota (Morris) Wants Credit for Darwinist Biologist P.Z. Myers
Note: From now on, we will try to properly credit the University of Minnesota, Morris as the employer of Darwinist biologist P.Z. Myers. In a press release earlier this month, we mistakenly stated that P.Z. Myers was a biology professor at the University of Minnesota. We soon received an e-mail from a public relations person at the University of Minnesota, Morris. She wanted to make clear that Dr. Myers was actually employed by the University of Minnesota, Morris.
The press release in question highlighted Myers' bigotry and intolerance, pointing out that he advocated "the public firing and humiliation of some teachers" because they are critical of Darwin, and quoting his complaint that Darwinists "aren't martial enough, or vigorous enough, or loud enough, or angry enough."
Apparently administrators at the University of Minnesota, Morris are proud of P. Z. Myers, and want to make sure that when we highlight his bigoted and intolerant comments that their institution gets appropriate credit for making such comments possible. OK, we'll try to comply. After all... we want to give full credit where credit is due.
I think they're reading far too much into this, but then that's nothing new. I didn't know that our PR person had done this, but I'm not surprised: that's her job, she's good at it, and it's perfectly reasonable to request some accuracy from the press. Our PR people would be sending out polite corrections if I happened to be a Republican Baptist, too. It doesn't mean that the university as an entity agrees 100% with what the individual says.
I do trust my university to support me, as they do support the principle of academic freedom. We are a diverse group here, with representatives of many Christian sects on the faculty and staff, as well Jews and Muslims, agnostics and atheists (relatively few of the latter, as you might expect), Democrats and Greens and Republicans (not too many of the latter, also as you might expect, but they are there, and they are also supported). We have a Newman Center, several active religious organizations, and quite a few student political groups. Students can come here and freely pursue any extracurricular religious or political orientation they want, also with the full support of the university.
I understand why the wanna-be theocrats of the Discovery Institute would find that frightening and deplorable.
We have an excellent university out here in our lonely stretch of the prairie, and I think it is wonderful that the Discovery Institute has chosen to mock us for our institutional support for diversity. That's public relations gold. "Come to UMM—the university the Intelligent Design creationists detest!" It's good timing, too, as this is when we're trying to get students to apply and enroll for the next academic year. It's not too late: if you know any high school seniors, send them to our page for prospective students, have them apply, and we promise to give them a first-rate liberal arts education if they are accepted and choose to come here. As another bonus, the Discovery Institute's PR is going to discourage students who are poor at science, the only ones who approve of their message, from coming here. It's free advertising, and it's going to select for a better applicant pool. Woo-hoo!
Oh, and I really can't let this slide. It's so representative of the dishonesty and distortion the Discovery Institute relies on to make their false cases. They say,
…he advocated "the public firing and humiliation of some teachers" because they are critical of Darwin…
Notice that only part of the quote is actually from me, and the closing bit is a complete fabrication. You can read the whole thing in context, where you'll see that what I'm demanding is basic competence from teachers, not some slavish adherence to 19th century doctrine, and in fact I am critical of Darwin.
Hey, there's a new slogan for them. "The Discovery Institute: supporting incompetence in education since 1990!" Or maybe, "The Discovery Institute: we don't require rigor and discipline. And it shows!"
Hmm. In the comments, I am reminded of this post by Wesley Elsberry: the Discovery Institute has a high-priced PR firm, Creative Response Concepts, with a charming record of clients.
Other notable CRC clients include the "Contract for America", Parents Television Council, Regnery Publishing (the firm that published Phillip Johnson's book, Darwin On Trial), and the high-profile client of the 2004 USA presidential campaign, "Swift Boat Vets for Truth".
Wow. I may actually be getting swift-boated! Perhaps without quite the degree of personal attention they'd give to a presidential candidate, but still…it's a little rewarding that the jackal notices when you've yanked on his tail.
By the way, if you are curious what some of my UMM homies might think of this, here's one example.
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Welcome to the list. Try to avoid pickup trucks with Kansas license plates. The Purveyors of Marketable Truth don't take kindly to contradictory college professors, but it's all plausibly deniable, as we have already seen.
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 09:11 AM
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Now they have taken to swift-boating folks, how repulsive.
Cool, my word was "Darwin"#: Posted by on 12/24 at 09:35 AM -
After their recent loss, the DI seem to be lashing out like a petulant child. Beats doing research I guess.
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 09:35 AM
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What a bunch of nutsacks. "Darwinist Biologist" is like "Einsteinist Physicist" or "Daltonist Chemist"
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 09:36 AM
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You have to give credit to UMM. Of course, they have a national reputation and really aren't dependent on drawing from the surrounding counties the way some other Minnesota schools are, not to name any names. And their ultimate head office is presumably in Minneapolis, and safe from local attackers.
Disovery Institute's true colors do come out pretty clearly here, don't they? First playing the victim card, and then trying to rouse the pitchfork-wielding know-nothings. I doubt that it will work very well, even in Stevens County.#: Posted by John Emerson on 12/24 at 09:42 AM -
"Disovery Institute's true colors do come out pretty clearly here, don't they"
I think this is going to the new strategy. They did a pretty vicious hit job on Darwin a few days back and Dembski has posted a picture of the check Playboy gave to Ruse for an article he wrote...not sure what the point was of that, other than, maybe, to insinuate Ruse was some kind of immoral porn loving freak not to be listened to by decent god fearing folk.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 09:55 AM -
So, how did Billy D. learn this???
Maybe he's spending too much time at the ol' computer?!?
Hypocrites are zee craaaziest peoples!!!#: Posted by on 12/24 at 10:03 AM -
Having been subject to these sleazeballs' quote mining and twisting of my words in the past, this is no surprise. Their ability to conflate a simple correction of fact, into a volley in the Darwinian wars is quite amazing. I have only read a few of their releases, but the percentage of hot air is so high that I am surprised the text is even visible to the human eye. Most sensible observers will think little of their pronouncements. I swear that they only issue releases so they can show them to their donors while grubbing for additional funds.
On the other hand, for instance, the U of Idaho will probably not be issuing press releases proclaiming how proud they are that Dr. Minnich is a scientist on their faculty who thinks ID is science, nor Lehigh for their luminary in the war on 'Darwin'. The faculty in Ames, IA probably isnt too thrilled about their role in education Minnich either. A school proud of its work in agriculture and cloning seems a strange place to house someone who questions evolution. Those guys down the hall creating hybrids of grains and corn will be shocked to find out that they are wasting their time in the face of the 'designers'' plans. I think there are grounds in such situations to at least investigate the competence of science professors who claim that ID is science. Would be think it was OK for math teachers to claim that multiplication isnt real, but is instead the work of outside forces which are unseen and cannot be known? Tenure is not necessarily protection against incompetence in your own field of study and teaching. A judge in PA figured it out in a few weeks, but these guys have been at it for years and still cant properly define science?
Let us hope that the good adminstrators at UMM are not just tolerating PZ, but are in fact proud that their campus is leading in the realm of academic freedom and public service because people such as PZ are members of their fine institution. Based on my exposure to UMM I know that there are more like him providing great public service to the citizens of Minnesota. If I had any children available for the cause I would strongly encourage them to consider UMM for the undergraduate education.
What has the DI done for the good of the public, anyway? Encourage the destruction of the Bill of Rights? Imagine that supernatural or unfindable events are responsible for everything more complex than they can understand? Encourage teachers and school boards to create ever more ignorant students? Try to take apart the complete concept of science and return us to the Dark Ages? Devalue God into the "Intelligent Designer"; it must be hell having your supporters reduce you from omnipotence to 'the universe's best engineer'.
Maybe the publicity and advertising by DI will encourage some other fine institution looking to pick up a little positive glow from PZ's public profile, by hiring him into an endowed chair ... say the University of Washington, for example.
And lets not get too paranoid here, I used to drive a pickup with Kansas plates .... It aint the pickups, or the Kansans, but the zealots with violence on their minds. Zealots unfortunately are hard to spot on sight alone.
On the other hand, I will keep an eye on the rear view mirrors of my pickup the next time I drive anywhere near Seattle ..... and now await the DI publication which quote mines this posting; conflating it into an attack on the academic freedom of weasels or their ilk.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 10:11 AM -
yeah , but i want to know why does DI ignore the rest of us? granted, noone is as illustrious as PZ and he has gotten press recognition and all that, but the majority of denizens at Pharyngula think the DI could be replaced by buttons that do absolutely nothing, too.
i know this started with a UMinn press release.
but if there's an "enemies list" at the DI, i want on !
-- ekzept, in envy#: Posted by ekzept on 12/24 at 10:27 AM -
Congratulations PZ. The Discovery Institute is attacking you in this way to try to make your life more miserable. This means you have been effective in addressing their idiotic arguments.
I also liked your post about Klinghoffer's column. I've got a post which comments on this here.
I'm sure the Discovery Institute were steaming mad over having you be the person the Strib goes to, to get the defense of science perspective, and Dave Eaton - from the Minnetonka school board for the creationist position. What's interesting is that it seems like the Minnetonka school district isn't too happy with having Eaton as a school board member. I don't think he will get reelected. I wonder if he could get recalled?#: Posted by Eva Young on 12/24 at 10:28 AM -
It's the Kansas strategy. You don't like one thing (science) but you know that has popular support, so you couple it to something else you and the public don't like (atheism) and make an appeal to popular bigotry. I guess we now know what their new strategy post-Kitzmiller is, and it's going to rely on a lot of slime and lies and dishonesty to whip up fury.
(No, I'm not planning to move. I like UMM. There's something about the phrase "small public liberal arts college" that pushes all of my buttons. It's why I came here in the first place.)#: Posted by PZ Myers on 12/24 at 10:31 AM -
(No, I'm not planning to move. I like UMM. There's something about the phrase "small public liberal arts college" that pushes all of my buttons. It's why I came here in the first place.)
I didnt mean to imply that there would be any value in it for you. UMM is a great place. UW should be so lucky ..........#: Posted by on 12/24 at 10:36 AM -
The DI picks on me because I'm an easy target. It's not as if I'm particularly prominent (like Dawkins) or have been a major figure in the scientific community (like Weinberg). It's just that they think I'm an easy target for bigotry (oooh, he's an atheist who doesn't worship Jesus!), and will be a pushover if they can stir up some public sentiment.
That article on "evolutionnews" does reveal something interesting: it must have really chapped their hide to realize my university isn't going to readily throw me to the wolves. I get the feeling they'd love to have a new role as the Horowitzian watchdog who gets anti-ID people fired or marginalized or beat up -- I'd be a stamp on the side of their pickup truck, a trophy they could wave at good Christian donors.#: Posted by PZ Myers on 12/24 at 10:38 AM -
i had a "darwin fish" ripped off my car once when it was in the shop for an exhaust pipe change. those, however, are poor credentials in comparison.
incidently, the sermon at our synagogue last night concerned the Jones ID decision, with the rabbi heartily endorsing the decision except to say he felt the judge's words weren't strong enough.
of course, this is a Reform congregation.#: Posted by ekzept on 12/24 at 10:43 AM -
So, I was incredibly bored and this little bit about the DI's press release got me thinking. This is a BAD THING. I googled your name on the google news thing, and know what popped up? 5 articles on how horrible you were for wishing Abraham back to the Permian instead of Hitler. They (being the fundies and the DI) really hate you for that, apparently.
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 11:06 AM
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For me one of the most frightening things about the discourse of the ID-DI sort is the similarity to soemthing we've seen before:
"Darwinist" Biologist, for instance
anybody rememner "Jewish Physics"?
People talked about 9-11 as pearl Harbor, I fear that it was more like the Reichstag fire.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 11:07 AM -
Thanks for the heartening post about how the Discovery Institute's sour grapes are helping the cause of education.
In other words, I love a sour grapes to whine story.
(ducks)#: Posted by on 12/24 at 11:27 AM -
5 articles on how horrible you were for wishing Abraham back to the Permian instead of Hitler.
what is it worse to say, that? or that Abraham probably didn't exist at all? nor did Moses, for that Matter. nor the Exodus, at least in any traditional or recognizable form. that's from archaeology, not a personal opinion.#: Posted by ekzept on 12/24 at 11:47 AM -
"anybody rememner "Jewish Physics"
You beat me to it, Bill. I've noticed that for some time now.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 12:04 PM -
From this its easy to see who the DI really caters to...and it's not the science crowd.
If, as they say "by their fruit shall ye know them", what does this say about the Christian ediface? If the DI is the fruit of Christianity, then the stalk must be afflicted with stem rot.
That they would slam an opponent for something they themselves readily do is the height of hypocrisy.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 12:15 PM -
Didn't I read something a few months ago about the DI hiring a new PR firm? There was some talk about the firm's previous work in political smear campaigns, maybe the anti-Kerry swift boat stuff.
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 12:29 PM
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Yeah, here it is.
In fact, it turns out that over the past year they had enough money to hire a very high-profile public relations firm, Creative Response Concepts (CRC), to spread their message. This is the same firm that represents AT&T;, the canonical American mega-corporation, among a long list of clients.
Other notable CRC clients include the “Contract for America”, Parents Television Council, Regnery Publishing (the firm that published Phillip Johnson’s book, Darwin On Trial), and the high-profile client of the 2004 USA presidential campaign, “Swift Boat Vets for Truth“.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 12:58 PM -
UMM administration should be proud of Professor Myers.
I note that some of the more outspoken and effective critics of ID work at small state colleges -- Edis in Missouri, for example.
As for Iowa State, in the pre-Internet days, it had an outspoken defender of science and sense against a Second Law-denying proto-DI fruitcake (his dean, as it happened). The Iowa State administration sat on its hands.
Hmmmmm. Considering the actual function of presidents of large universities (which has little to do with education or research), perhaps only at small, publicly-funded schools can we expect institutional support for outspoken publicists who are defending modernism.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 12:58 PM -
The Discovery Institute: We don't have scientists, and we don't even have decent lawyers, but all tremble before our might public relations firm!
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 01:21 PM
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Makes me want to move to Minnesota...
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 01:25 PM
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Once again Klinghoffer has honored you with some rather esteemed company in a column.
First, consider the views on religion from leading Darwinists themselves. Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, the most distinguished of modern Darwin advocates, writes that "faith is one of the world's great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate."
In his book "Darwin's Dangerous Idea," Daniel Dennett, of Tufts University, condemns conservative Christians for, among other things, "misinforming [their] children about the natural world" and compares such a religion to a wild animal: "Safety demands that religions be put in cages, too — when absolutely necessary."
Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, at the University of Texas, declares, "I personally feel that the teaching of modern science is corrosive of religious belief, and I'm all for that."
At the University of Minnesota, biologist P.Z. Myers, a bulldog for Darwin, writes about how he wishes he could use a time machine to go back and eliminate the biblical patriarch Abraham: "I wouldn't do anything as trivial as using it to take out Hitler."
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=klinghoffer23&date;=20051223&query;=klinghoffer
You must be doing something right to get their knickers twisted that tight.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 01:27 PM -
Other notable CRC clients include the “Contract for America”, Parents Television Council, Regnery Publishing (the firm that published Phillip Johnson’s book, Darwin On Trial), and the high-profile client of the 2004 USA presidential campaign, “Swift Boat Vets for Truth“.
Who would Jesus swiftboat?#: Posted by on 12/24 at 01:45 PM -
Take heart that the Discovery Institute may also be peeved by the editorial stance that same paper took the day before:
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=dovered22&date;=20051222
It is titled: "Intelligent Decision on Intelligent Design". It ended with these two paragraphs:
"Promoters of intelligent design immediately condemned Jones, a Republican Bush-appointee, as an activist judge with all manner of suspect motives. They can pound the table forever, but they can only pound on the science so far. Their explanation for what they cannot test or explain ultimately defers to a creator.
"Fine. Take the argument to an elective religion or philosophy class, and no one will raise a cilia in protest."#: Posted by on 12/24 at 01:56 PM -
PZ, given your fairly minor role, I would say that you are spot-on in your description of their motivation for attacking you. They think you are an easy target. Good thing that you have the backing of your university.
Also, they have forgotten your brainwashed horde of Darwinist minions.#: Posted by on 12/24 at 03:56 PM -
I stopped readiing litterally at the first sentence, at "employer of Darwinist biologist P.Z. Myers. "
If they want to talk about biology as a science, they are stuck with scientists. If there is some other kind of biology, in which you could have a non-Darwinist biologist, I doubt it is going to inform or advance me in any way.
Really! Is there some other kind of biologist than a darwinist biologist?
Note to self: never start your essays with a sentence that blatantly presumes your sacred oxymoron is a great truth.
Anyway, PZ, you are one of the bloggers I just had to visit with a "happy end of the year" greeting. Best wishes for 2006 and thanks for being one of the writers whose toil and expertise made 2005 a good year for the truth in the left half of the blogosphere.#: Posted by greensmile on 12/24 at 04:09 PM -
I'd like to go to the Permian, PZ. Does your time machine have a back seat?
#: Posted by bill on 12/24 at 05:20 PM
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Congratulations, P.Z., and compliments of the season. It looks like you're in the DI lineup here because of your healthy combination of atheism and biological credibility. But it also says that you've got enough of a profile to be getting on their nerves. Keep it up in the new year!
#: Posted by Bryson Brown on 12/24 at 06:36 PM
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One would think the fundies would know hyperbole when they see it.
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 08:15 PM
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Does UMMorris help those brilliant-but-wacky learning disabled kids? I have one that will change your world but drive you nuts.
#: Posted by on 12/24 at 08:49 PM
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Wow. I may actually be getting swift-boated! Perhaps without quite the degree of personal attention they'd give to a presidential candidate, but still…it's a little rewarding that the jackal notices when you've yanked on his tail.
You...and apparently Judge John Jones III is on their swift-boat hit-list also. You're in good company.#: Posted by Zaktem on 12/24 at 08:50 PM -
I don't think you make a very easy target, precisely because most people haven't heard of you: it's easier to mock scientists by trotting out a Nobel Prize winner or well-known popular science writer who thinks religion is BS than by trotting out a seemingly random professor. Rather, I can think of two reasons why you're on the list, both of which boil down to the fact that because of your blog, many people who are involved in the evolution-creation wars know you. The first is that you're a big-name to them by virtue of your blog, so they think you're a big-name in general. The second is that they ran out of things to trash Dawkins with, so they went for the first other defenders of evolution they could think of.
#: Posted by Alon Levy on 12/24 at 09:56 PM
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One would think the fundies would know hyperbole when they see it.
The problem is that fundies take hyperbole dead serious, including their own.
I don't think you make a very easy target, precisely because most people haven't heard of you
That never stopped the Right from going after Ward Churchill.#: Posted by on 12/25 at 12:46 PM -
Frankly Paul,
The University of Minnesota is not an institution that I've ever thought much about before you went there. I'm sure it's a fine school, yet if someone had suddenly asked me to start naming American universities, I'm sure I would have come up with Tulane or Wake Forest before U of M. crossed my mind.
For me at least, you put the place on the map. I now know that it's a school that doesn't cater to hogwash, at least in the sciences. (I have no idea whther their schools of, say, economics or art are any good.)
You're a credit to U of M, and the teaching profession.
-jcr#: Posted by on 12/25 at 11:36 PM -
Get yourself an agent, man! With the DI providing all this free publicity, now's the time to pitch that How Giant Squid Ate Baby Jesus book...
R#: Posted by on 12/26 at 07:28 AM -
Ward Churchill was already a celebrity, subject of page one newspaper stories and, by far, the most popular public speaker in my state.
You need to get out more, Seth.#: Posted by on 12/26 at 11:59 AM -
Regnery Publishing (the firm that published Phillip Johnson's book, Darwin On Trial
I think it's more effective to point out that Regnery got its start as a Nazi apologist outfit.#: Posted by on 12/26 at 06:01 PM -
I forgot the <irony> and </irony> tags...
#: Posted by on 12/26 at 07:52 PM
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Yet here's a write-up of UMM which (shockingly
) doesn't mention P.Z.Myers at all:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A6174993
Would that be allowed to happen with creationist-harbouring institutions? It seems that PZ still has a way to go with becoming seriously prominent as an "enemy".#: Posted by on 01/04 at 07:03 AM