In Bill Maher\u2019s latest comedy\/politics bit on Real Time \u2014called\u201cF with your algorithm\u2014he calls out people for assuming that because he criticizes the left, he must be a right-winger. This criticism hits home for me, as I\u2019ve been accused of the same thing.\u00a0 As Maher notes, he\u2019s been criticized for being a right-winger by people who deliberately ignore his criticisms of the right\u2014even though he does that as well, and often.\u00a0 People don\u2019t like to call attention to things that make them uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
One example is our joint anthology, The War on Science<\/a>, which was attacked for criticizing the left\u2019s erosion of science when in fact many of its authors are liberals. The slant of the book apparently angered some \u201cprogressives,\u201d who argued (many without having read the book), that it should have been aimed instead at the right (which also damages science).\u00a0 My response to these critics is pretty much the same as Maher\u2019s, but this is a family-oriented site so I will simply echo what Maher says at 1:07.<\/p>\n As Maher says, \u201cIf you think your job is to tell people what you want to hear, you\u2019re not a journalist\u2014you\u2019re a wedding D.J.\u201d\u00a0 He gives examples of his own demonization for being a right-winger when, in his piece, he had in fact he\u2019d criticized both right and left. Much of the reportage on Maher\u2019s so-called conservatism (he\u2019s a classical liberal) involves deliberately distorting or truncating his views. Maher may seem a bit defensive, but he deserves to be!<\/p>\n (The guests appear to be Mark Cuban<\/a> and Andrew Ross Sorkin<\/a>.)<\/p>\n At the end he analogizes this journalistic tactic\u00a0 to how websites and devices also type their users, developing algorithms that, as we all know, aim their ad at users who, they think, will bite. His solution? Mess with those computer algorithms by clicking on things that you don\u2019t like or want. That has a side benefit.\u00a0 You\u2019re a liberal like most of us, start reading conservative sites: that will do you good anyway.<\/p>\n Apropos of Maher\u2019s monologue, we have a new video (below) about The War on Science book, or rather about its thesis. Lawrence Krauss, author of the anthology, says this about the\u00a0 100-minute video (I haven\u2019t yet watched it):<\/p>\n