Ben Stein's Fall from Disgrace to Something Lower

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Dardedar
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Ben Stein's Fall from Disgrace to Something Lower

Post by Dardedar »

DAR
Nice rant about that idiot Stein.

Expelled: Ben Stein's Fall from Disgrace... to... Something Even Lower

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Excerpt:

"...in his new movie denouncing Big Science's mean, bossy, and totally unfair bias against magical thinking, Stein actually walks through the remains of Dachau concentration camp as he asserts that Nazism would not have been possible without Darwin.

I know! That's exactly what I said! Yeah, and then I did that, too. And it still hurts.

I mean, the historical ignorance he displays, his dismissal of centuries of European anti-Semitism, his blindness to the role of religion in genocides of peoples long before Darwin was even a twinkle in a lucky zygote's chromosomes - these all betray the numbskullery of the notion of blaming the Holocaust on Darwin. But it's the hypocrisy of Ben Stein, like that of his hero Nixon calling the murdered students at Kent State "thugs," that makes the whole thing so breathtaking, heartbreaking and mind-blowing.

This man, this Ben Stein, who invokes American-style Volkische moral purity, pretending support for the earning class while favoring economic policies rewarding the ruling class at the expense of his vaunted "heartland," who impugns the patriotism of those who dare question the noble intent of our leaders, who sneers at intellectual "elites," this Ben Stein who champions a psuedo-scientific, politically oriented narrative of creation that would have made Himmler proud - can there be any doubt that Ben Stein, had he been born a German gentile, would have been a spokesman for National Socialism? I don't think anyone with a grasp of how academia, particularly science (particularly medicine), was taken over by quacks, politicos and party-line liars in the Germany of the 1930s can doubt it.

You may say it's rude to point it out, but I'm not the one who stomped all over Dachau calling Darwin a Nazi. And I'm not calling Ben Stein a Nazi. All I'm saying is: had he had the opportunity, he would have been a wholehearted Nazi supporter. All his current public positions indicate the validity of such an assessment. And he wouldn't have had to believe in Darwinian evolution to be one, either. All he would have had to believe, or say he believed, was that Germany and the purity of its traditions were in danger from an internal elitist liberal enemy.

See? Then he could go on to say that, in academia, the liberal elites, tainted with deranged or at best biased and totally unfair intellectual sophistry, were stealing jobs from more deserving scientists with wholesome beliefs. That the scientists with all the good ideas had been, in effect, Expelled from the scientific profession by a cabal of deceivers who control scientific knowledge.

All Ben Stein would have had to say to support the Nazis back then is what he's saying right now.

Shut up, Godwin.

Just because George W. Bush won't be in office next year doesn't mean we've dodged the bullet of a white Christian supremacist dictatorship. We are not out of the woods yet, my darlings. That a man, let alone a Jew, could, without shame, walk on the graves of Holocaust victims and claim the theory of evolution was at fault, let alone a man whose nationalism, social darwinism (which is not Darwinism, by the way), anti-intellectualism, and disregard for the truth are beyond doubt - it's like some ghastly executioner's joke. If the message of Expelled weren't being taken seriously by a religio-political movement that has already caused two presidential elections to end in disaster, it would be merely obnoxious. Instead, it's chilling.

Can he sink any lower? Never underestimate the depths of degradation a Ben Stein might sound. My money's on Ben Stein to be the first human being to reach the Earth's core.

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Post by Barbara Fitzpatrick »

How does he explain execution of Jews during the Inquisition? That was rater pre-Darwin.
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Re: Ben Stein's Fall from Disgrace to Something Lower

Post by NPABOOKS »

What is "freethinking?" What is a "fay" freethinker?
Why is it that free thinkers have so much trouble allowing others to think freely?
Is it a requirement to be a free thinker, to disdain logic?
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Dardedar
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Re: Ben Stein's Fall from Disgrace to Something Lower

Post by Dardedar »

DAR
Thanks for your questions NP.
NPABOOKS wrote:What is "freethinking?"
DAR
I suppose this would be the action a "freethinker" takes when practicing "freethought." Standard dictionary definitions give us:

free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of
reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. -- Webster's New World Dictionary -- Third College Edition

free-think-er n. One who has rejected authority and dogma, especially in religious thinking, in favor of rational inquiry and speculation. –American Heritage

You might also see our webpage here.
What is a "fay" freethinker?
DAR
The "Fay" is short for "Fayetteville." Hence, "Fayetteville Freethinker."
Why is it that free thinkers have so much trouble allowing others to think freely?
DAR
a) "freethinkers" is one word. Please make a note of it.
b) could you give an example of freethinkers having "so much trouble" with anyone thinking freely? Thanks in advance.
Is it a requirement to be a free thinker, to disdain logic?
DAR
Quite the opposite.

Now if you would like to back up your attempted insults with some evidence, I (and perhaps others) would be most pleased to consider them.

If you were troubled by this thread which outlines the dishonesty of Ben Stein and this terribly dishonest flick, I encourage you to also see the other thread or two we have which are devoted to dismantling his errors
in great detail. For instance here.

Thanks for stopping by.

D.
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Re: Ben Stein's Fall from Disgrace to Something Lower

Post by tmiller51 »

Ben Stein's TV ads for a scuzzy "free" credit product have finally caught up to him: The New York Times has fired Stein as a Sunday business columnist for violating ethics guidelines.

Stein was pilloried online for his endorsement of the bait-and-switch operation, which offers a free credit score but charges an outrageous $30 per month to see the credit report behind the score. As Reuters blogger Felix Salmon pointed out, consumers can get a free online report under federal law.

The Times' issue, though, is that Stein has violated its ethics policy, which states "it is an inherent conflict for a journalist to perform public relations work, paid or unpaid.

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Tim
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