Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History (Paperback)

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Review
"'An invigorating trumpet blast against the monstrous regiment of twenty-first-century quacks, flat-earthers and mumbo-jumbo merchants, loud enough to wake reason from its sleep.' Francis Wheen 'This excellent little book... should be put in the satchel of every secondary school child, in the departmental pigeonhole of every undergraduate, and in the hands of every officer of every quango called Ofsomething. Widely enough read and clearly enough understood, it might save us from the tsunami of misinformation, falsity, error and distortion that infects our culture.' A C Grayling, New Humanist * 'Powerful, compelling and necessary - in this book Damian Thompson takes a blowtorch to sloppy thinking and stands up for enlightenment values with dash, authority and aplomb.' - Michael Gove * 'The few hours it will take you to read this passionate, angry, wise and witty book will be well spent. You will have a lot of fun and at the same time be armed to the teeth against the many modes of quackery that are abroad today and the ethos that has permitted them to flourish.' - Raymond Tallis * 'Counterknowledge is more than just a thoroughly enjoyable demolition job of every type of modern quackery. Damian Thompson shows how what to us appears harmless pseudo-science breeds nationalism, race hatred and disease.' - Nick Cohen"

We are drowning in a sea of lies and fakery, aided and abetted by the Internet culture's anything-goes mentality, warns Thompson (Waiting for Antichrist, 2005, etc.).In this slim but tough-minded book, the editor in chief of Britain's Catholic Herald newspaper argues that the Web-enabled proliferation of alternative theories and speculations challenging orthodox beliefs on everything from evolution to 9/11 are nothing short of a looming disaster for civilization. Thompson takes a cold chisel to the fatuous bubbles of pseudo-theories proliferating in the modern mediascape, to devastating effect. Defining counterknowledge as "misinformation packaged to look like fact," he begins to dismantle some of its more popular examples. Keeping his prose cool and level-headed, the author debunks theories ranging from the idea that the U.S. government was behind 9/11 to the surprisingly popular belief that the Chinese (among a host of other nations) landed in North America before Columbus. Not coming from any easily deducible ideological angle, Thompson passionately defends nothing more complicated than factual truth, a concept in danger of being swept away by "a pandemic of credulous thinking." He pushes aside the baseless "theories" behind alternative-medicine hokum and intelligent design by doing something he calls "deeply unfashionable": assuming that when a large number of scientists from varied backgrounds all state something as a proven fact based on empirical evidence, it probably is correct. Showing that fringe quackery has charged unchallenged into the mainstream media and begun bellowing unproven beliefs (Vaccines cause autism! Aromatherapy cures cancer!) to a conspiracy-prone public, Thompson portrays a culture dangerously close to losing touch with reality.The only thing to complain about with this illuminating book is that it isn't long enough to irrefutably knock down each of the baseless ideas the author discusses. (Kirkus Reviews)

A. C. Grayling, New Humanist
'Excellent... Widely enough read and clearly enough understood, 'Counterknowledge' might save us from the tsunami of misinformation, falsity, error and distortion that infects our culture... Superb.'

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22 Reviews 5 star:  (6) 4 star:  (4) 3 star:  (3) 2 star:  (2) 1 star:  (7)           Average Customer Review 3.0 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   7 of 8 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Forceful yet lightweight, 13 Oct 2008 By  Stucumber "Stucumber" (N. Wales) - See all my reviews    A good read but quite slight. Although I did agree with most of the author's arguments it was mostly because I was familiar with them already. I can't imagine that this would likely convince anyone who believes in 'alternative' notions of reality as it doesn't really examine them with any real rigour. I'm still looking for the definitive book on all things 'woo' and though this is not it, it's still a decent primer into the world of 'Counter-Knowledge'. Where the subject of this book -counter-knowledge- begins and ends I don't know and from the author's definition I'm still not entirely clear. Given the author's occupation as a writer for a christian publication, what defines orthodox knowledge for him may not chime with everyone else's definition. Still, I believe at least he is nominally on the side of rationality and reason. Even if some of his personal beliefs, for me, make him a target of his own argument. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   37 of 50 people found the following review helpful: 2.0 out of 5 stars Hypocritical elements of truth, 25 Jun 2008 By  Mr. R. A. Davies (England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History (Hardcover) Firstly, the good points. This book points out many of the more dubious beliefs held by sections of society, and indeed justifiably, it seems, calls for people to open their eyes to many of the highly suspect techniques used by pioneers of 'counterknowledge' in the conveying of their work: 'Loose Change', for example, taking situations out of context and cropping photos to bias their account of events, thus encouraging sceptism of such notions as 9/11 conspiracy theories. However, the book's downfall is ironically preset in its own approach to 'facts'. Unfortunately, Thompson's reasoning, scattered citations and poorly disguised subjectivity in his portrayal of counterknowledge ultimately mirrors his criticism of how counterknowledge is spread in the first place. For example, in the same paragraph of describing how the 'cultic milieu', in their stupidy, basically think everything is conspiratorial and unrealistic once they accept one conspiracy, he goes on to make the generalisation that since 9/11 is supposedly an unjustified conspiracy, so must be the case with ESP, UFOs, Bible Prophesy, near-death experiences, and so on. This sort of generalisation becomes ubiquitous as the book progresses; and thus Thompson forms his own 'cultic milieu', which should probably be renamed 'sceptic milieu' - as it seems just about as valid to presume that all conspiracies and unlikely events are false as it is to presume that all are true. I see this book as a piece of counterknowledge in itself by the way it arrogantly presents all its inferences and conclusions as fact, thus being as misleading to the weaker-minded reader as the likes of Dan Brown - only on the opposite end of the spectrum. This said, 'Counterknowledge' does have SOME valid points and, albeit at the expense of its integrity, is an entertaining read. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   31 of 42 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Fighting the fictionalisation of fact, 5 Feb 2008 By  Andy Cannon (Flagstaff, AZ) - See all my reviews This review is from: Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History (Hardcover) Everyone always goes on about this and that being a 'necessary' book. It is rare to find one that really is necessary as well as being hugely entertaining and thought-provoking. Thompson writes in clear, elegant prose which belies his deep research of the subject matter. The argument put forward is clear, ratonal and of interest to anyone who's dismayed by the conspiracy theory and easy answer culture of our decade. Previous reviews have mentioned the author's (purported)Catholicism but these purely ad hominem attacks miss the point. Even if you don't agree with Thompson's targets (and with holocaust denial, homeoipathy and creatonism - you'd be remiss not to) then this book is still a valuable treasure trove of methodology. Thompson lays out a process by which all 'knowledge' can be emprically tested. This is so essential that it's a surprise no one teaches it to kids in school. Oh, did I also mention that te book is funny? well, that it is; acerbic and witty in all the right places. In an age where believeing in UFOs and believing in DNA are accorded the same credibility by the masses, this is that rare thing, a truly necessary book whose lessons you can take with you and apply to anything. In the years to come, this will be seen as a ground-breaking text on destroying dogma and piffle....make sure you read it now and arm yourself against the exigencies of fiction masquerading as fact. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 22 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews 1.0 out of 5 stars very skewed Damian is a good spin doctor at his job praising the Vatican for the Catholic Herald. I suppose there are two kinds of truth for Damian, The Truth and Catholic Truth, but they... Read more Published 3 months ago by G. Wigmore 3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but ... The book is well writen, etc. and I share all of the author's misgivings about counter knowledge, conspiracy theories, etc. Read more Published 4 months ago by Christian Heyde Petersen 1.0 out of 5 stars Good but bad Much of this may be excellent, but anyone who lumps together all complementary and alternative medicine as 'quack medicine' and makes no intelligent, fact-based distinction... Read more Published 5 months ago by D. Maceoin 4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking but too short I thought Mr Thompson's book was a very entertaining and enlightening read. Other reviewers have given a good flavour of what this book is about so I have little to add... Read more Published 5 months ago by Mr X 1.0 out of 5 stars so weak that i wonder how the editor throwed this on the market this book is so weak that i wonder how the editor throwed this on the market. it is short, lacks substrance and lacks truth. Read more Published 6 months ago by Kevin Smith 1.0 out of 5 stars One of only two books I have ever put in the bin I really don't know where to start, as a complete dissection of the flaws in this book would require a longer, more reasoned and more factual study of the issues than we have... Read more Published 7 months ago by M. McClure 5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Stuff! If the last Diana inquest bored you to tears, or you are sick of listening to crap 9/11 conspiracies, get hold of this brilliant book now. Read more Published 9 months ago by W. Heaven 1.0 out of 5 stars An odd combination of sneering and alarmism, containing numerous misconceptions and errors. Young-earth creationists in the US have built a museum containing mechanised tableaux showing dinosaurs and humans in Flintstone-style coexistence. Read more Published 9 months ago by Tim Wilkinson 3.0 out of 5 stars Shooting fish in a barrel Generally I am with Mr R A Davies who gave the book two stars, but perhaps that is a little harsh. Thompson is quite selective in his choice of targets, and treats... Read more Published 12 months ago by jsa 5.0 out of 5 stars Irresistible, opinionated assault on dishonesty Thompson seems genuinely angry at the dishonesty he encounters among those who would prey on our gullible natures. Read more Published 12 months ago by James Burbank Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 22 customer reviews...

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