[Peace-discuss] Denialism

[Szoke, Ron]

[ Denialism has been characterized as] "the employment of rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of argument or legitimate debate, when in actuality there is none". It is a process that operates by employing one or more of the following five tactics in order to maintain the appearance of legitimate controversy: 
> Conspiracy theories – Dismissing the data or observation by suggesting opponents are involved in "a conspiracy to suppress the truth".
> Cherry picking – Selecting an anomalous critical paper supporting their idea, or using outdated, flawed, and discredited papers in order to make their opponents look as though they base their ideas on weak research.
> False experts – Paying an expert in the field, or another field, to lend supporting evidence or credibility.
> Moving the goalpost – Dismissing evidence presented in response to a specific claim by continually demanding some other (often unfulfillable) piece of evidence.
> Other logical fallacies – Usually one or more of false analogy, appeal to consequences, straw man, or red herring.
  / Tara Smith of the University of Iowa also stated that moving goalposts, conspiracy theories, and cherry-picking evidence are general characteristics of denialist arguments, but went on to note that these groups spend the "majority of their efforts critiquing the mainstream theory" in an apparent belief that if they manage to discredit the mainstream view, their own "unproven ideas will fill the void".
  / In 2009 author Michael Specter defined group denialism as "when an entire segment of society, often struggling with the trauma of change, turns away from reality in favor of a more comfortable lie". 
  — from Wikipedia, online 
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=>  Examples of denialist controversy:  flat earth theories, creationism vs. Darwinian evolutionism, smoking & cancer, HIV & AIDS, Holocaust denial, moon landing, climate change/global warming, coronavirus pandemic, legitimate election of Joe Biden as next president. ~ RSz.