Cui bono
Qui bono (properly cui bono?) is Latin for "who benefits?" It is the single most important question to ask when evaluating any (usually political or criminal) manoeuver, but not a particularly wise thing to do when answering a question of a scientific or medical nature. Just ask Paul Brodeur [1]-- he got the entire damn U.S. and a bunch of the world afraid that cell phones and power lines cause cancer because people don't understand the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.[2]
While it's always good to ask "cui bono?", it can be taken to ridiculous extremes. Many conspiracy theories are built using this line of reasoning and then working backward from the conclusion by relying on post hoc reasoning. A classic example is 9/11 conspiracy theories. Cui bono? The Bush administration, of course, so they must have done it! Isn't it suspicious that 9/11 just happened to give cover to their plans for war?
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[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ The whole sad story is in Voodoo Science, ©2000 by Robert Park.
- ↑ Hint: ionizing starts in the visible light spectrum somewhere around indigo. Radio waves aren't, even when they get up into the hundred-gigahertz range.