A perfect description of fake gurus

Science and Technology
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I’m not sure if there are “real gurus”, but anyway. PZ Myers has returned to the blogging space, and takes on Bret Weinstein who claimed to take on Tucker Carlson, but did it so dishonestly, it takes another evolutionary biologist to untwist it. At the end, PZ gives a perfect description of this type of public pseudoscience for profit

PZ says, “He’s doing what every wanna be guru does. He’s hiding all of his evidence behind his wall of ignorance and then telling all the rubes that he has the secrets. Just sign up for his podcast and send him money and maybe he’ll release little pieces of the truth, but not too quickly.” Some reason for not revealing everything is always given. The conclusions, how they were arrived at, the evidence, the questions they still have, and the self-critiques are all held somewhere in a drawer somewhere or only applied to others.

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In his book “Guards, Guards”, Terr Prachett doors something similar

“You tell them a lie, and then when you don’t need it any more you tell them another lie and tell them they’re progressing along the road to wisdom. Then instead of laughing they follow you even more, hoping that at the heart of all the lies they’ll find the truth. And bit by bit they accept the unacceptable. Amazing.”

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