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APRIL 19, 2019
AIKEN-AUGUSTA’S MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED IN 2006
AUGUSTARX.COM
THE GOLDEN AGE In this era of advanced scientific knowledge, with more information at our fingertips than any generation in human history, we’re living in a unique moment in time. But if this is a golden age, of what is it the golden age? Its best and most accurate description might be the Golden Age of Denial. Consider the many areas of scientific and historical “fact” that large numbers of people reject in whole or in part: • Many people believe moon landings never happened, and that today’s International Space Station (ISS) is a hoax; it does not exist. • The mass murder of millions of Jews during the Nazi regime (1941-1945) is a fabrication, say many. • Belief in a flat Earth is growing. • AIDS denialism has been called one of the most vocal of all denial movements. Its proponents believe AIDS to be the result of malnutrition, recreational drug use, poor sanitation and other factors, not HIV. • The belief that vaccines cause autism surely has to
rank above AIDS denialism on any list of highly vocal and visible groups of people who deny overwhelming evidence to the contrary. • Climate change, greenhouse gases and global warming are consensus beliefs in the scientific community but the subject of much doubt and skepticism among the general populace. • “Sept. 11 was an inside job” is one slogan used by the “9/11 Truth Movement.” Among its beliefs: the U.S., not Al-Qaeda terrorists,
orchestrated the attack to provide the U.S. with a pretext for invading Iraq and Afghanistan; the collapse of the buildings was not caused by the planes, but showed evidence of “controlled demolition.” • The massacre of twenty 6- and 7-year old children at Sandy Hook Elementary never happened, allege many, and they claim other mass shootings are fabrications staged to give the government a pretext to control and confiscate guns.
• Despite hundreds of studies establishing their safety, many people view genetically modified (GM or GMO) foods as dangerous and unhealthy. The list could go on. Our March 22 issue mentioned a researcher who believes that measles is 100 percent psychosomatic. But before this article goes on, it should be noted that using the words “denier” or “denialist” is viewed by some as prejudicial, as though a given topic is not open to
debate and only a fool would deny the given set of facts. The word carries an implied insult and bias. If a person said, “Joe denies that the square root of 323 is 15.72,” you might be inclined (because of the way the statement is worded) to wonder, “What in the world is wrong with Joe?” In this case, what’s wrong is 15.72. The square root of 323 is 17.97. So let’s stipulate here and now that “denier” carries some baggage; it may come across as prejudicial. But that didn’t originate here at the world headquarters of the Medical Examiner in Augusta, Georgia. In the psychology of human behavior, denier and denialist are defined with a fair amount of prejudicial language: “Denialism is an essentially irrational action that withholds the validation of...an empirically verifiable reality.” The clinical definition goes on to define denialism as “the rejection of basic facts and concepts that are undisputed; rejecting overwhelming evidence.” You might have noticed,
Please see GOLDEN AGE page 2