Essay:CP on Deceit

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Essay.svg This essay is an original work by PalMD.
It does not necessarily reflect the views expressed in RationalWiki's Mission Statement, but we welcome discussion of a broad range of ideas.
Unless otherwise stated, this is original content, released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 or any later version. See RationalWiki:Copyrights.
Feel free to make comments on the talk page, which will probably be far more interesting, and might reflect a broader range of RationalWiki editors' thoughts.


We Report, You Decide!

Conservapedia "Deceit" Article

RW bitch slap

Deceit is the deliberate distortion or denial of the truth with an intent to trick or fool another.[1]

Conservatives teach that deceit is wrong.[2] Liberals do not teach that deceit is wrong.[3]

Deceit is the deliberate distortion or denial of the truth with an intent to trick or fool another.

Conservatives teach that deceit is sometimes wrong. For example, conservatives teach that "Thou shalt not bear false witness againt thy neighbor" but Conservative activist Scooter Libby was sentenced on June 5, 2007 to two years in federal prison for bearing false witness.


Examples

Abortion issues misrepresention[edit]

In 1997 the National Coalition of Abortion Providers' executive director Ron Fitzsimmons admitted, "I lied through my teeth" about the facts in order to defeat a ban on partial birth abortion.[4]

Responses

Abortion issues misrepresention[edit]

Mark Harrington, Midwest Director for Center for Bio-ethical Reform, an anti-abortion group, responded to questions about signs showing more mature fetuses labelled 10 weeks old in order to garner more support. "You need to grab people's attention," he said, "just like any other movement, the ends justify the means, so to speak."[5]

Gun Control Lies[edit]

Gun control advocate Michael Bellesiles wrote a book entitled Arming America, The Origins of a National Gun Culture (2000). Gary Wills gave it a glowing review in The New York Times, but admitted later that "I was took. The book is a fraud."[6] Bellesiles resigned from his position as Professor of History at Emory University in Atlanta when an independent committee of scholars examined his work and concluded that "his scholarly integrity is seriously in question."[7]

NRA Deceptions[edit]

The National Rifle Association claims to support religious leaders. It regularly solicits for funds on religious websites.[8] It is supported by an overwhelmingly conservative constituency. Yet, it has "blacklisted" religious organizations whom they perceive to be anti-gun. They deceptively ask for money from the same people they blacklist (follow the links for clarity).[9]

Left Wing Spies[edit]

Alger Hiss was a communist spy who worked at high levels in the U.S. government. He was convicted of two counts of perjury relating to his denials of his treason. His verdict was upheld at the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Hiss was sentenced to five years on Jan. 25 and served 44 months in Lewisburg Federal Prison before being released in November 1954. Yet he continued to claim he was innocent afterwards. Documents released from Soviet files after communist collapsed there proved that Hiss had been a spy, and the 1997 Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy concluded that he was a spy in its report. [10]

Right Wing Spies[edit]

Right wing spies were present throughout WWII in the United States, and several prominent conservative Americans, such as Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh supported the Nazis. They were unrepentant.[11]

Scientific Lies[edit]

Sigmund Freud lied about his research in order to make it falsely appear that his psychoanalysis had some benefit. "Freud had lied to us; we could no longer trust him."[12] Yet liberals continue to teach in school that Freud was a great scientist.

Scientific Lies[edit]

Michael Behe, Philip Johnson, and other Creation "Scientists" lied to make their theories appear secular and scientific. In Kitzmiller v. Dover Area Public Schools, the conservative judge concluded that, "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy." And yet many conservatives continue to teach that they are great scientists.

"Liberal" Plagiarism[edit]

Democratic Senator and Presidential candidate Joe Biden is listed on famousplagiarists.com for his widely publicized copying from British liberal Neil Kinnock and then pawning it off as his own, and then initially denying he had done anything wrong. This was not the first time Biden had plagiarized. The resultant exposure of his unacknowledged appropriation of Kinnock's work forced Biden out of the 1988 presidential race,[13] but he's back running in 2008 and liberals do not seem to mind his prior deceit one bit.

"Conservative" Plagiarism[edit]

Many conservatives have been guilty of plagiarism, including Steve Pierce, Republican Congressman from New Mexico.[14][15]

Also see this list of articles.

Deceptive Politicians Honored by the Labour Party[edit]

John Stonehouse was a prominent British Labour Party official in the 1970s who faked his own death in Miami and then moved to Australia with his mistress, where he was discovered by chance and then extradited to Britain to await trial. But when he returned to Britain, the Labour Party welcomed him and accepted his continued leadership role in its Party as its whip in the Parliament. He was later convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail.

Deceptive Politicians Honored by the Republican Party and Their President[edit]

Tom DeLay, a prominent Republican Leader, is under indictment for several campaign finance irregularities. However, "White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that former President Bush still viewed DeLay as "a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people"


Past Fraud on Evolutionary Science[edit]

The Piltdown Man was a fraudulent "Missing Link" taught to an entire generation of students worldwide from 1912 to 1953 as "proof" that man had evolved from an ape-like species. Darwinists officially declared the Piltdown Man to be authentic and gave it a formal name: Eoanthropus dawsoni, in honor of the person who claimed to have found it, Charles Dawson. The British scientific establishment largely supported the validity of Piltdown Man.[16] But the Piltdown Man was actually a medieval skull combined with a lower jaw from an orangutan and teeth from a chimpanzee, which were then placed in a gravel pit in the village of Piltdown, England. There are reports that as early as 1914 someone at the British Museum privately admitted that "a negro skull and a broken ape jaw" had been "artificially fossilized." Yet evolutionists continued this deceit for decades, teaching it in textbooks (e.g., the text at issue in the Scopes Trial in 1925) and publicizing it in popular books and magazines (e.g., a 1922 book for the general market illustrated the daily life of the Piltdown Man). [17]

Fraud by Current Religionists[edit]

Faith healing is a fraudulent practice, encourged by a generation of evangelists, as "proof" that God heals through miracles. Despite many exposees, conservatives continue to teach about faith healing in their texts and churches.[18][19][20]


Deceptive Liberal Fiction[edit]

Liberals popularized the Scopes trial with the 1955 play Inherit the Wind, which is often taught in schools, and the 1960 Hollywood motion picture by the same name. Both completely lied about the facts in order to harm Christianity, misleading students who read or enact the play and everyone who saw the movie. As recently as April 17, 2007, the Village Voice described the play as though it were factually true,[21] thereby misleading all of its readers.

Deceptive Conservative Fiction[edit]

Conservatives have idealized Ronald Reagan to point of sainthood, without any willingness to acknowledge the illegal, anti-American activities that were perpetrated in his White House, under his approval, such as the Iran/Contra scandal.[citation needed] Also, (x) members of Reagan's inner circle were indicted or convicted during his presidency. Conservatives continue to portray Reagan as the greatest American president ever, in spite of these illegal activities, and his apparent senescence and lack of memory while in office.[citation needed]


"Fraud" in the Supreme Court[edit]

Doe v. Bolton[22] was the decision in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court which created abortion on demand based on the theory that Ms. "Doe" wanted an abortion for her health. Sandra Cano was the "Doe" of Doe v. Bolton, and she later proved in sworn testimony that at "NO TIME did I ever have an abortion. I did not seek an abortion nor do I believe in abortion."[23] She filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 asserting that "fraud was perpetrated on the Court" in the original Doe v. Bolton case brought in her name. In April 2007, the Supreme Court cited approvingly her brief for the general principle that abortion might harm the women who have them.[24]

Fraud by Lawyers[edit]

Andrew Schlafly, Esq., conservative activist, consistently lies about a link between breast cancer and abortion to advance his ideology and line his pockets.[25]


References[edit]

  1. In law, deceit is the fraudulent representation of a material fact, made intentionally or recklessly or without reasonable basis and with the intent to induce reliance on the falsehood. In tort law, if someone does justifiably rely on the deceit to his detriment, then he has a cause of action for recovery of his injury.
  2. For example, conservatives teach that "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." [1]
  3. See, e.g., Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980) (the Supreme Court ordering removal of the Ten Commandments from display in public schools).
  4. http://www.slate.com/id/2086/
  5. http://media.www.bgnews.com/media/storage/paper883/news/2007/04/20/Opinion/ProLife.Group.Using.Scare.Tactics.Lies-2870279-page2.shtml
  6. Jonah Goldberg, Reports of the 2nd Amendment's death have been greatly exaggerated ... Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Apr. 8, 2007.
  7. http://hnn.us/articles/1069.html
  8. http://www.natreformassn.org/schpray.html
  9. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_24_120/ai_111531678
  10. Moynihan Commssion on Government Secrecy, Appendix A 6. The Experience of The Bomb
  11. http://www.americainwwii.com/stories/nazispiescomeashore.htm
  12. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n08/borc01_.html
  13. http://www.famousplagiarists.com/politics.htm
  14. http://www.famousplagiarists.com/politics.htm#pearce
  15. http://www.famousplagiarists.com/politics.htm#logan
  16. http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/tenness5.html
  17. Everyday Life in the Old Stone Age, Charles Henry Bourne Quennell, 1922, p. 51.
  18. Randi, James (1989). The Faith Healers. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-535-0 page 10.
  19. Benny Hinn on NBC Dateline, December 27, 2002.
  20. http://www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com/
  21. http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0716,feingold,76394,11.html
  22. 410 U.S. 179, 192 (1973).
  23. http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=1553&wit_id=4393
  24. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=05-380
  25. http://www.rationalwiki.com/index.php?title=Breast_cancer_and_abortion_-_the_link_that_isn%27t