Essay:Response to CP's 'Liberal denial' article

This is an essay in response to Conservapedia's "Liberal denial" article, accessed December 27, 2008.

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The "Liberal denial" article is another delusional lulz in the great Encyclopedia of Lulz that is Conservapedia. It reads too much like a paranoid manifesto explaining why liberals should be exterminated, rather than taking a realistic critical look at liberals.

The article begins with a "list of the top ten common instances of liberal denial," without any reference from where these rankings come. Here is the list, with responses after each.

Conservapedia's points	Irrational Atheist's response
liberals deny they are liberal, and that most of the media are liberal	In a year that saw unprecedented numbers of Republican candidates for office refuse to use the brand "Republican" when running, why would Conservapedia make this number one on their list of liberal denials? From Dino Rossi trying not to use "Republican" on the ballots for the election in Washington to numerous Republicans (incumbents and challengers) having no mention of the Republican name or brand anywhere on their campaign websites, 2008 was the year that no one wanted to be politically Republican and Conservative during the election. The media being liberal is a tired message. Conservatives tout the biggest cable and radio hosts are always Conservative almost in the same breath as they argue the media is liberal. At some point, people in the media will get wise to this message as a means to stop proper reporting of the news. After all, if people berate you for being liberal, and you report something that seems liberal, you've made their case. So to seem less liberal, report more Conservative-friendly stories and be especially harsh on liberals. The years of the Clinton administration versus the years of the W. administration should make this perfectly clear how the press kowtowed to this stupid lie.
Hollywood values, professor values and general liberal values have consequences for those who believe in them, and also for innocent victims	The terms coined by Andy to prove liberals are the bane of mankind and Conservatives (and Conservative Christians) are the only path to salvation for humanity. Our economy, our standing in the world, our education, our safety abroad and our credibility have all been sunk thanks to eight years of Republican rule. Andy and his site can try to find news stories that help prove his case when they pop up, but watching an ideology ruin a country as the world has seen with the Bush administration is proof enough that what Andy believes is right is only ideological and not based on reality.
liberals have censored prayer in public school	The link provided as reference is an ABC News story about a New Jersey high school student who found that his textbook was full of Conservative deceit. Legal scholars and top scientists agree that "American Government by conservatives James Wilson and John Dilulio presents a skewed view of topics from global warming to separation of church and state." “”The textbook is designed for a college audience, but also is widely used in AP American government courses, said Richard Blake, a spokesman for the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Co. Blake said the company "will be working with the authors to evaluate in detail the criticisms of the Center for Inquiry." Blake said some disputed passages already have been excised from the newest edition of the book. “”Hansen has sent Houghton Mifflin a letter stating that the book's discussion on global warming contained "a large number of clearly erroneous statements" that give students "the mistaken impression that the scientific evidence of global warming is doubtful and uncertain." About the only aspect of this that comes to censorship of prayer in public school (which is another myth): “”LaClair also was concerned about the textbook's treatment of U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding prayer in school. The book shows a picture of kids praying in front of a Virginia high school and states, "The Supreme Court will not let this happen inside a public school." Blake said the photo was cut out of the most recent edition. The textbook goes on to state that the court has ruled as "unconstitutional every effort to have any form of prayer in public schools, even if it is nonsectarian, voluntary or limited to reading a passage of the Bible." Those examples are not correct, says Charles Haynes, a religious liberties expert at the First Amendment Center in Washington. "Students can pray inside a public school in many different ways," Haynes said, adding they can pray alone or in groups before lunch or in religious clubs, for example. Haynes said students can't disrupt the school or interfere with the rights of others. The court has said the prayer can't be state-sponsored, so a teacher can't lead a prayer and a school can't require it, Haynes said. So this seems to be an aspect of Conservative deceit and denial of reality.
a woman significantly reduces her risk of breast cancer by having children rather than abortions	One need only read RationalWiki's Conservapedia:Schlafly,_breast_cancer,_and_abortion article. Since an expert spelled out how wrong this statement is better than I could, I'll leave it to that page.
about half of promiscuous people carry sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and those STDs cause infertility	The article linked for reference is a Tulsa World article that completely refutes the short sentence. One would think that Conservatives would not be so blatantly deceitful in linking to authority, then lying to fit the link to their agenda, but here's another case where the article does not fit their claim. The article opens, "At least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease, suggests a first-of-its-kind federal study that startled some adolescent-health experts." So where does CP get the figure above? From stretching the truth. Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more disturbing -- 40 percent had an STD. Got that? About half the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Mind you, not being promiscuous (though to the main CP admins, perhaps any teen that has sex would be promiscuous), but just admitting to having sex. And that's only girls, not "people" as CP argues. And only forty percent of those girls (again, not people) who had sex had an STD. There's a big enough difference in statistics when one compares $2/5$ and $1/2$, but apparently not to CP. What about the infertility? The article says, "Because some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility and cancer, U.S. health officials called for better screening, vaccination and prevention." Some, not all. The article states flatly, "The overall STD rate among the 838 girls in the study was 26 percent, which translates to more than 3 million girls nationwide, researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found." So what does the article say is at fault? "Some doctors said the numbers might be a reflection of both abstinence-only sex education and teens' own sense of invulnerability." “”"Sexuality is still a very taboo subject in our society," (sex education expert Nora Gelperin) said. "Teens tell us that they can't make decisions in the dark and that adults aren't properly preparing them to make responsible decisions." Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Fed eration of America, said the study shows that "the national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price." Consevapedia admits that abstinence-only is a Conservative ideology while proper, comprehensive sex education, which has shown to decrease STDs and pregnancies in teenagers, is a Liberal ideology. This is yet another instance of Conservative denial.
the strident promoters of evolution generally have weaker credentials than advocates of intelligent design	Their referenced example (the only example, in fact) is Dr. Richard Sternberg. Sternberg's publication of the only known "peer-reviewed" article on anything related to Intelligent Design was improper, according to the journal. “”The paper by Stephen C. Meyer, "The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories," in vol. 117, no. 2, pp. 213-239 of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, was published at the discretion of the former editor, Richard v. Sternberg. Contrary to typical editorial practices, the paper was published without review by any associate editor; Sternberg handled the entire review process. The Council, which includes officers, elected councilors, and past presidents, and the associate editors would have deemed the paper inappropriate for the pages of the Proceedings because the subject matter represents such a significant departure from the nearly purely systematic content for which this journal has been known throughout its 122-year history. For the same reason, the journal will not publish a rebuttal to the thesis of the paper, the superiority of intelligent design (ID) over evolution as an explanation of the emergence of Cambrian body-plan diversity. The Council endorses a resolution on ID published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2002/1106id2.shtml), which observes that there is no credible scientific evidence supporting ID as a testable hypothesis to explain the origin of organic diversity. Accordingly, the Meyer paper does not meet the scientific standards of the Proceedings. Experts in evolution who CP regularly dismisses include: Richard Dawkins (MA, D.Sc., Oxford, FRS, FRSL; with several honorary degrees and awards for his scholarship and writing) PZ Myers (BS Zoology, Univsersity of Washington; PhD Biology, University of Oregon) Eugenie Scott (BS, MS, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; PhD, University of Missouri) These three are the physical scientists interviewed in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. All three have earned accredited doctorates in their respective fields of expertise. The same as Dr. Richard Sternberg. Yet the three experts listed above have not be rebuked by the associations for which they serve; Sternberg's work has.
college faculties at nearly every school are completely dominated by liberals, and have virtually no conservatives	Referring again to my previous essay, Essay:Criticism_of_CP's_Censorship_Page, this is nonsensical.
homosexuality shortens lifespan for a wide variety of reasons	This is a discredited argument from the Family Research Institute and its primary homophobic father-son team, Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron (no known relationship to the actor). The APA tossed out Dr. Paul due to ethical violations twenty-five years ago. His ranting against homosexuals has not diminished. No respectable organization, scientist or researcher has ever shown a link between homosexuality and a reduced lifespan.
reducing the number of guns, which are primarily defensive weapons, results in an increase in crime	Though recently their crime rates have increased, Japan is still one of the safest countries in terms of gun-related crimes. Guns are banned in the nation (except for licensed organizations), so this country would be the epitome of gun control. Guns have been banned since the end of World War 2, so the uprise in crime in the past ten years is not due to the ban. According to Nation Master, Japan has extremely low percentages of crimes. Canada, which allows ownership of guns, has a fairly high amount of crime relative to Japan's. Guns (or gun control) have little to do with the crime rates of a country per capita.
Liberals deny that the war in Iraq was needed and also deny that the surge has worked	The war in Iraq was unnecessary. The rationale behind the United States taking a preemptive strike against the Middle Eastern country was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and would be willing to use them against the United States and its allies if we did not strike first. When the United States took control of much of the country and searched for these assured weapons, none were found (except for buried stockpiles of harmless chemical weapons the United States sold to Iraq during the 1980s under that perfect President). The original purpose to the surge was to help quell the sectarian violence and allow the Iraqi government to become self-reliant. So far, the troop levels have not diminished to the level they were before the surge, nor has the Iraqi government so far become self-reliant. So, by definition, the surge has not fulfilled its intent. It did some good, sure, but to claim it victorious without meeting its goals is denial.

The rest of CP's claims of Liberal denial reads like a paranoid delusional's manifesto. Few are sourced, and many are not based on anything rooted in reality or are attributed to denial where none exists.

That Obama is running the dirtiest campaign since Johnson
more than 80% of child molesters are pornography addicts
people like young mass murderers who take atheistic beliefs to their logical conclusions are not
 "crazy" or "insane", but are true believers
the intellectual justification for Hitler's attempt to build a master Aryan race was the theory
 of evolution
feminists censor discussion about differences between men and women, and boys and girls
state run health care has lead to Islamic terrorism in Britain, and would do so in the US.
obesity is a bigger problem than hunger in the Western world
that a school having virtually no conservative teachers and many atheists and liberals is a liberal
 school
that liberals attempt to intimidate and ostracize conservatives, particularly in school
 environments and some occupations.
that liberals support taxpayer-funded abortion
that girls and women in sports have debilitating ACL knee injuries at 3-4 times the rate of men,
 and are vulnerable to other injuries
that young mass murderers fit the profile of public school-trained atheism
that the numerous premature deaths of Hollywood stars are the result of Hollywood values
that homeschoolers often do better than those who attend public school
that culture affects politics, and people's views and lifestyles
that successful democracy, both historically and logically, is the result of Protestant
 Christianity
that Lawrence Summers was fired as President of Harvard for making a politically incorrect
 suggestion about women and math aptitude
that Ronald Reagan's public exhortation, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," helped cause the
 nearly 30-year-old Berlin Wall later be torn down
that gun control increases crime (wasn't this covered above?)
that reducing taxes stimulates the economy
that choosing abortion over childbirth increases the risk of breast cancer (or this?)
that the mainstream media is biased (which way? Liberals often accuse the media of having
 a Conservative slant)
that privately-run transport is more efficient than government-run transport
that universal health care is inferior medical care
that unions interfere with employment opportunities
that liberal leaders engage in shocking wrongdoing, hypocrisy, and abuse of power
that ideas do matter, and can cause great harm, including liberal falsehoods
that Islamic extremism is a threat to the Western civilization
that banning same-sex marriage is analogous to banning polygamy
that aggressive interrogation is often the only way to obtain answers from terrorists
how the liberal ideology is pushed on unsuspecting others, particularly youngsters
that free trade strengthens global democracies
that a child in a mother's womb has rights established by the Constitution
that a vote for (yea) or a vote against (nea) is an absolute position
that you can be held accountable for the statements uttered
that climate forecasts 50 years from now are as inaccurate as 15 days from now
that politicians that proclaim 'Change' actually do not break with policies of the past
that removing Saddam Hussein from power was a good thing.
that eating meat and dairy is important for physical and mental health.
that marijuana use has no lasting psychological effects.
that illegal immigrants contribute to crime and poverty in the towns and cities they occupy.
that English will cease being the language of the United States in 20 years unless it is
 protected as the official language (and that this would be a loss if it happened).
that President Bush didn't cause Hurricane Katrina.
that President Clinton was responsible for Rwanda inaction.
that the Democratic party discriminates against African-Americans.
that restricting free speech by the Fairness Doctrine is actually not fair nor democratic.
that we can drill oil our way out of high gas prices.
that we can't replace our dependence on oil with green technologies, when in fact we need both
 oil and green technologies to solve our energy crisis.
that opposing same-sex marriage is justified and point to decriminalized interracial marriage
 bans as proof.
that they are intolerant of opposing viewpoints and then try to stifle further discussion.
 (One need only look at how Andy and his kin deal with such on CP)
that socialism and liberalism have the same political agenda.
that God should have a place in government
that modern drilling methods result in minimal environmental impact, even if they were
 implemented in uninhabited lands such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
that companies like Exxon should pay billions of dollars in damages to the general public,
 in addition to the money they spend to clean up industrial accidents and to recompense those
 directly affected
that selective logging keeps forests healthier by reducing the risk of wildfire
that high food prices are not caused by ethanol production, but rather by the million acres
 of crop- and pastureland that have been taken out of production in the interest of wildlife
 conservation.
that the life of a human is more important than the life of an animal or plant.
that modern technology can make coal clean (There's a spill in Tennessee CP should look at)
that a fence is the most effective and ultimately, the most peaceful way to protect our large
 border from illegal immigrants trying to get in
that socially dangerous people exhibit a well-documented pattern of reading habits
that heavy metal music is generally anti-Christian and promotes themes such as drugs, sex and
 Satan worship.

So, there you go. Delusions of CP easily refuted, and far too many to even bother with handling. But they're still good for a laugh or five thousand.