Ch. 9 - Junk Thought

Please use this thread for discussing Chapter 9.

I saw Susan on The Colbert Report where Steven accused her of plagiarizing from the word "truthiness" which he coined.

Susan lists four warning signs of junk thought.

"The first and most fundamental warning sign is an inability to distinguish between coincidence and causation - a basic requirement for scientific literacy." p. 219

"A second telltale sign of junk thought is the appropriation of scientific-sounding language without underlying scientific evidence or logic." p. 221

"A third important element in much of junk thought is innumeracy - a lack of understanding of basic mathematical and statistical concepts." p. 222

"Expert-bashing -- a favorite tool of both the right and the left -- is another distinguishing mark of junk thought, and the effectiveness of the technique depends on the public's inability to distinguish among good science, bad science, and pseudoscience. Scientific evidence, however overwhelming, is dismissed by the expert-bashers as politically biased." p. 225