Thank you, micadelic, for one of the most inane analyses I’ve seen of the Expelled issue:
i just wonder why, if mr. pz is so smart, he’s doesn’t realize he was used as part of a pretty clever publicity stunt. expelling him from expelled! and then he rushes to the nearest computer to breathlessly report how he was kicked out. priceless.
pretty funny if you ask me (and i believe in evolution). i just think pz is an insufferable intellectual snob and it’s great to see him get punk’d.
I suppose I should stop being surprised at the things you think…
PZ attempted to see a movie that he was in. The makers of the movie knew he was coming and waited until the last moment to kick him out. (They could have just emailed him and told him he wasn’t welcome.) The “clever publicity stunt” made those tools look like extra special tools when they kicked out PZ and let Dawkins in! Oops, sorry, didn’t recognize the most recognizable atheist in the world (who is also in the film!). PZ’s reporting of the incident was hilarious and the press associated with the incident was 100% critical and negative towards the movie. Oh, yes, very clever.
I’ve met PZ and he is a very humble and very nice person. He is not a “snob” in the slightest. What he is is extremely knowledgeable about this issue — evolution — and he is constantly defending generally accepted science against people who don’t know a single fucking thing about it. Yes, I suppose one can seem like a snob when you are an expert on a subject and you are debating self-righteous idiots without a clue WTF they are talking about.
The core issue here is very interesting — how the Right pretends to be anti-intellectual. Anti-intellectualism is an agenda of elevating mediocrity and small-minded thinking while denigrating education and intelligence. It’s completely nuts and it gets us incompetent leadership like George W. Bush — a “regular guy” completely devoid of the skills necessary to do his job.
We need a hell of a lot more “intellectual snobs” and a lot less influence by ignorant people too lazy to be intellectually engaged with the world.
lolife 
sorry man, i’m on “the right” and i’m not anti-intellectual at all. i basically agree with mr. pz. i believe evolution is a scientific fact and i think folks who believe the world is 4,000 years old are retards. i also believe there may indeed be some omnipotent being, or force, or whatever but i also believe that i’m too small, insignificant, or otherwise unable to percieve or understand it.
couple things though… no matter what you think about the so-called “critical and negative” press, this movie has received a bunch more visibility because of this little stunt they pulled on pz. you seem to forget that what you see as “critical and negative” about the “tools” that created this movie, others see as an attack on their beliefs, and their side, and it’s therefore somewhat of a rallying point for them. again, not saying i agree, i’m just pointing out that you need to step outside yourself a little to try and understand how the “IDiots” (which is really an offensve term, BTM) perceive this same set of circumstances. and i do think it’s funny that pz apparently didn’t recognize it for what it was.
and it’s often said that communication happens with the receiver, so no matter how brilliant, or nice, or hale fellow well met pz might be in person, every time i see him or hear him speak he comes off to me (and others) like a condescending snob. sorry pz if your reading this, your probably as wonderful of a fellow as michael describes. were just dealing with perceptions here.
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