Counterknowledge [Hardcover]

Damian Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2008

An important and compelling book on the viral dissemination of misinformation in today's world.

We are being swamped with dangerous nonsense. From 9/11 conspiracy theories to Holocaust denial to alternative medicine, we are all experiencing an epidemic of demonstrably untrue descriptions of the world. For Damian Thompson, the misinformation industry is wreaking havoc on the once-lauded virtues of science and reason. Unproven theories and spurious claims are forms of "counterknowledge," and, helped by the Internet, they are creating a global generation of misguided adherents who repeat these untruths and lend them credence. Thompson explores our readiness to accept falsehoods and the viral role of technology in spreading quack remedies, pseudo-history, and creationist fanaticism. Following in the footsteps of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion, Sam Harris's The End of Faith, and Christopher Hitchens's God Is Not Great, Counterknowledge is a brilliant defense of scientific proof in an age of fabrication.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Thompson, we are experiencing a pandemic of counterknowledge: misinformation packaged to look like fact, but that is demonstrably false. In rapid-fire prose, Thompson, editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald, examines several cases of counterknowledge, arguing that creationism, conspiracy theories regarding 9/11 and claims linking autism to childhood vaccines have been promoted as factual by respected journalists and publishers. In one example of the power and danger of pseudohistory, Thompson devotes a great deal of effort to take down already much-debunked notions of creationism and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and the ridicule he heaps on Mormonism explains little about why it is such a rapidly growing religion. He is scandalized that Gavin Menzies's 1421 is heavily promoted by all of Britain's leading chains of bookshops, though Menzies's notion that the Chinese discovered America has been widely derided by historians. Seeing the source of the spread of counterknowledge in the decreasing role of institutions like church and family, and the rise of postmodernism, Thompson sheds much heat but little light on the age-old phenomenon of human gullibility and its exploitation. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

In the genre of skeptical literature, there are books like Richard Roeper’s recent Debunked! (2008), or the writings of James Randi: books that debunk pseudoscience, bogus history, charlatans, and the like. There are also books like Michael Shermer’s Why People Believe Weird Things (1997), and this one, which explore why so many seemingly bright individuals buy into so much rank idiocy. Thompson tackles such notorious foolishness as 9/11 conspiracy theories, satanic ritual abuse, the bafflingly widespread belief that the Chinese discovered America, and other abundantly debunked nonsense, but he tackles it from the point of view of a sociologist. Why do people persist in believing outrageous things when the evidence of their invalidity is so easy to find? Why do people so readily fall for counterknowledge—defined as misinformation packaged to look as fact—when the actual facts are readily available? And why do people who should know better (in particular, book publishers) treat this garbage as though it didn’t stink to high heaven? An important, impassioned addition to the skeptical literature, and a book that makes a significant contribution to the art of critical thinking. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st American Ed edition (September 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393067696
• ISBN-13: 978-0393067699
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,108,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A not entirely successful broadside against some worthy targets, January 22, 2009

By 

David M. Giltinan (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Counterknowledge (Hardcover)

I wanted to like this book more than I did. But Damian Thompson was not a particularly appealing advocate for the forces of reason. His tone throughout is one of self-righteous superiority, with the result that after a couple of chapters, it's like being trapped at a dinner party with a know-it-all guest - you don't care how right he is - you just wish he'd shut up already.

Not that his targets aren't worthy. They fall into three main categories: pseudoscience, pseudohistory, and what might be thought of as examples of "popular delusions and the madness of crowds". Thompson gives particular scrutiny to:

# Creation "science" , "intelligent design" and the assorted shenanigans of evolution-bashers.
# The prevalence of untested, unproven "alternative therapies" (which he refers to as "Quack remedies"), from homeopathy to reflexology to aromatherapy.
# Assorted conspiracy theories (primarily related to 9/11)
# Examples of "pseudohistory": Jesus's lovechild survives, but the Catholic Church maintains a conspiracy of silence. The Phoenicians/Israelites/Celts/Greeks/Vikings/Chinese discovered America in (choose your pre-Columbus date). Aliens (or technologically super-savvy ancient civilizations) roamed the earth, building the pyramids and Mayan temples until perishing in the lost city of Atlantis!
# Marketing phenomena such as "The Secret", dubious dietary supplements, QLink bracelets with crystal-based 'healing powers'.

All of this makes Thompson righteously indignant. And I'm certainly not going to defend any of them here - indeed, all this bogus 'knowledge', shoddy scholarship, and fuzzy thinking does deserve our skepticism, at times our condemnation. But from a purely pragmatic point of view, Thompson would be more persuasive if he didn't wax quite so white-hot indignant about each and every example he cites. After all, not every example of 'counterknowledge' has equally serious consequences - some are considerably more damaging than others. Bogus science which denies the link between HIV and AIDS, or which makes unwarranted claims about a putative link between MMR vaccination and autism is clearly actively dangerous, as it can cause people to avoid therapies proven to be beneficial. Those who promulgate this kind of misinformation, in the service of their own political or profit-driven agenda, deserve to be challenged and possibly earn our moral censure. But no matter how much the success of Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" or Gavin Menzies's "1421: The Year China Discovered America" might irritate Thompson (and clearly, it does!), it is hard to see these books as being quite as dangerous or reprehensible as,say, holocaust denial used to foment anti-Semitism or the South African government's distortion of information related to the cause of AIDS.

Thompson's uncalibrated indignation has the unfortunate side-effect of suggesting that every instance of 'counterknowledge' deserves equal condemnation, which ultimately hurts his argument, though not fatally. A far more serious flaw throughout the book is what I can only term a persistent anti-Islamic strain, which is hard to ignore, and seems particularly unfortunate given the author's position as editor-in-chief of The Catholic Herald .

For instance, Thompson claims that "Islamic Creationism is turning into a serious problem for British sixth-form colleges and universities", but fails to substantiate this claim with anything but the flimsiest of anecdotal evidence. He goes on to assert that the damage of Creation Science is limited within the United States because it is still "essentially located within the American cultic milieu", while "Islamic creationism" by contrast is a unified and increasingly influential component of a wider Islamic worldview". Which might be OK if he didn't then go on to establish that almost all of the anti-Darwinist propaganda promulgated in the name of Islam is the product of a single individual. In these sections Thompson appears clearly guilty of applying differential standards of evidence to support his claims.

In the end, the most useful part of this book was the "Further Reading" section that concludes it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The people who will read this book are not the people who need to read it, March 19, 2009

By 

Elizabeth Ray (Stockton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Counterknowledge (Hardcover)

In Counterknowledge, Damian Thompson takes on Holocaust deniers, homeopathic medicine, alternate historians, and creationists and shows how they use books, the media, and the internet to disseminate disinformation. The author is from the UK, so most of the examples he gives come from Britain or the US. His book reveals that there are many people to be critical of, but he does seem to harp on some more than others: for example, he repeatedly chastises Dan Brown of Davinci Code fame for contributing to the proliferation of inaccurate revisionist history - Davinci Code is FICTION!

Thompson makes little more than a token effort at making suggestions to fight the proliferation of counterknowledge. He suggests exposing frauds through internet blogs, but this strikes me as preaching to the choir - a person reading a blog for skeptics is unlikely to believe the counterknowledge anyway.

Though portions of the book are interesting (particularly the section on alternative medicine), the writing style is very, very dry. As a result, the people who most need to hear what he has to say never will because they will never make it through this book. Although short, it is plodding.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A lean and cautionary smorgasbord about false knowledge., February 8, 2009

By 

Saty Satya Murti "(Semper Pipaasu)" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Counterknowledge (Hardcover)

This is a book about pseudoscience, pseudohistory, health quackery, fear mongering and false knowledge. Thompson cites instances of shallow inquiries, collateral and advantageous spread of low caliber information, unsubstantiated assertions and pseudoauthority. He writes about holocaust denial, pre-Columbian discovery of America by the Chinese, Da Vinci code, evolution vs. creation controversy, and ostensible MMR-autism link. He details the existence of proponents with academic sounding qualifications and even universities with dubious standards. He laments the general gullibility of the public. This is a well-referenced small fonted 162 page book. Alas, there is no index!

I tend to be not so harsh about the lacunae in this book. Of course, Thompson has not produced an encyclopedic work on anti- knowledge; there are gaps, indeed. For example his chapter on "Desperate Remedies" discusses alternative medicine, homeopathy, chiropractic and nutritional therapies in a negative vein. His stand is not only supportable but also not inaccurate in general. He leaves traditional allopathic medicine broadly unassailed. This position, however, is not entirely neutral in my opinion.

We, physicians who practice traditional, not alternative, medicine, were eager to use hormone therapy. We created diseases based on trivial or incidental imaging data or social inconveniences. The harms brought about by hormone therapy, by unnecessary surgeries based on incidental MRI findings or filthy profits gained by overtreatment without strong evidence are well-known by now. Books by Marcia Angell ("The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It") or Melody Petersen ("Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs") draw a much better picture of what is not so correct or healthy about the knowledge base with which current medical orthodoxy operates. These weaknesses are also products of counterknowledge, but Thompson does not discuss them in any detail. Is it because these are not considered "alternative?"

If it is pseudoscience, in general, that one wishes to bemoan then I recommend an earlier work by Charles Winn and Arthur Wiggins ("Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins"). This is a complementary and humorous account about pseudoscience; it delves into specifics of fallacies and illogic extant in contemporary thinking.

Thus, there is some stale repetition of topics already well-covered by others; nevertheless this book will serve those who are not experts in every arena where counterknowledge is likely to be hiding and thriving. This is a lean cautionary smorgasbord. There is something for everyone - that is the strength of Thompson's book. I enjoyed reading about pseudohistory, an area of unfamiliarity to me. There were a few noteworthy passages. Here is one from the last chapter titled, "Living with Counterknowledge": ..."The practitioners of counterknowledge teach us that the universe is not arbitrary, that things happen for a reason."

A random and arbitrary world is a frightening concept for those of us with weaker constitutions; this fear is perhaps the sustaining force of counterknowledge.