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Apr 13 2010

Penn and Teller Bullshit: A moment of truth?

I am not a gigantic fan of Bullshit, Penn and Teller's Showtime series in which they "are pit bulls for the truth, poised to tear down these myths in the most jaw-dropping fashion possible", according to their website. I have found their shows to be generally of two types:

1. Decent take-downs of low-hanging fruit Such as the catholic church, people who want to cure homosexuality, belief in magnetism curing pain, etc.
2. Credulous distortions masquerading as skepticism The absolute worst case of this was when they denied that second-hand smoke was harmful. Their evidence was pretty embarrassing: they quoted a single judge's ruling that a certain researcher had cherry-picked data. In reality, the evidence is generally undeniable (and rather obvious) that second-hand smoke in relative proximity increases lung and heart disease by 25%. When it became clear that they were being bludgeoned by the facts, Penn retreated, saying that new data showed he had been wrong. This itself was bullshit, as the data were around way before the show (more here).

Now I see on tvguide.com that the show will take on vaccinations in their upcoming eighth season. This is a moment of truth for P&T: are they going to side with the Huffington Post/Bill Maher ilk and claim that vaccinations are bullshit (which seems to be what the episode's title implies, since the topic isn't "anti-vaccinationists") or will they fall on the side of ORDINARY INTELLIGENCE and tear down the dangerous idiots trying to get people to believe in the demonstrated falsehood that vaccines cause autism?