Critical Thinking: Rest in Peace

Could we already have witnessed the death of critical thinking? It is painful to watch the conspiracy theorists, or the "we are living in a totalitarian regime" fools, or to read the commenters on Digg. (I have really cut down on the Digg thing, such sophomoric thinking and half-truth silliness by guys who really want to read Playstation articles.) BTW... there is a marketing nugget at the end of the post.

Popular Mechanics has always been above politics, and corporate payola. Now they are found to be, well, let Jim Miegs tell it:

Within hours, the online community of 9/11 conspiracy buffs - which calls itself the "9/11 Truth Movement" - was aflame with wild fantasies about me, my staff and the article we had published. Conspiracy Web sites labeled Popular Mechanics a "CIA front organization" and compared us to Nazis and war criminals.

Popular Mechanics? Really? Just because they point to reality instead of hysteria. True facts instead of highly cropped and edited snips? Come on guys, attacking PM is, well to use a phrase that is popular, jumping the shark bigtime. Your attack on that venerable magazine shows that you have no arguement. Conspiracies always make me want to ask... you really think that the huge 'brocracy' could organize something as tedious as your claims? Really?

Last night I was up late and "Coast to Coast," was on the radio that was left on. There was a steady stream of the most laboriously fabricated crap you have ever heard regarding 9-1-1. From one-worlders, to neo-nazis, to newworldorder kooks, it was simply amazing. They call themselves 'truthers' but in fact they are marginalized freaks who are more at home discussing video games than seriously searching for 'truth.'

More from PM

In every single case, we found that the very facts used by conspiracy theorists to support their fantasies are mistaken, misunderstood or deliberately falsified.

Here's one example: Meyssan and hundreds of Web sites cite an eyewitness who said the craft that hit the Pentagon looked "like a cruise missile with wings." Here's what that witness, a Washington, D.C., broadcaster named Mike Walter, actually told CNN: "I looked out my window and I saw this plane, this jet, an American Airlines jet, coming. And I thought, 'This doesn't add up. It's really low.' And I saw it. I mean, it was like a cruise missile with wings. It went right there and slammed right into the Pentagon."

The point is that your business could suffer the same nuttiness unless you are careful with what you do, how you do it and how you deal with situations. And still, one bad transaction and the internet can unleash with a fury. Whether or not it would pass the stink test. Truth won't matter. Research won't matter. All it would take is a swarm of critically-dead-thinkers to attack as a swarm. Like ants. Following the leader. Without flinching or questioning.

Question: Would you be prepared to deal with this kind of attack? Think about it, you may need that answer some day.