Spoilers Ahead

Caution: This post contains spoilers about one of my favorite blogs. I've been wanting to write this post since November, and have held back for fear of letting the secret out of the bag. You might wonder how I can spoil a blog, but this one also requires an opinion about the blogger, an opinion that you might be better off forming for yourself without the influence of a confirmed tomato addict.
If you have some time, go check out Science and Math Defeated and form your own opinion. I'll put mine below the fold.





[image somewhat pointlessly borrowed from shophyperformance.com]


In response to a post by Notedscholar, earlier today I inserted a comment at RationalWiki about this blog (SMD) being satire, a Poe if you like. The comment was soon removed. I really was not trying to be a saboteur, but after carefully digging into some of the posts and references on SMD I find them to be well researched, very cleverly thought out, purposefully crafted counter-arguments to the original statement. As Notedscholar (NS) this blogger plays the anti-science role and never comes out of character. Indeed, he cannot come out of character without defeating the purpose of the blog.

You might also note what NS does *not* say in replies to comments people post; compare what is refuted and what is allowed to stand. Each posts has a specific point to make, which might not be immediately obvious, except that is generally opposite of the initial statement. When someone refutes the statement and gets is wrong, or is right but incorrectly stated, NS shoots them down. When someone gets it right and makes the correct argument NS generally lets it stand *without* comment. NS could easily delete these posts, but instead leaves them (in my estimation) as the resolution to the original statement of the post.

Finally, look at the people who comment. These are not kooks; They are very smart people trying to point out the flaw in his argument. Some of them do, some of them don't. As I've read some people complain, NS is all over the internet posting on blogs and stirring up trouble, but the result is pro-science, and that is the ultimate purpose.

At least that is my opinion. I find Science and Math Defeated to be enormously entertaining, often laugh-out-loud funny, and filled with razor sharp wit. If some people (very smart people!) get their shorts in a knot over it, it is either because they have become a bit too rigid in their thinking to appreciate the greater point being made, or have become too complacent their own views to bother to understand what is being said being said and why it is correct [double emphasis on the why]. NS claims that he is always correct, and he is; you just have to consider what he writes from the proper perspective. Understanding the perspective of this blog can help people be just a little bit smarter, if they make the effort.

Felis sum et ad furandum veni