Laws of Internet Discussion: Announcing Orac's Law

Bernadine Healy, she of the career free of scientific accomplishment, has come out....as at best, an apologist for the anti-science, anti-vaccination crusaders.  At worst, she is a card-carrying member of the Society to Promote Vaccine-Preventable Disease.

In Healy's latest blog post, she parrots every anti-science, anti-vaccination talking point promoted by Generation Rescue/Age of Autism.

Orac at Respectful Insolence analyzes the weaknesses in her blog post, and makes a proposal:

I hereby declare Orac's Law:

In any discussion involving science or medicine--and especially vaccines--citing any material published by Generation Rescue or Age of Autism as a credible source loses you the argument immediately ...and gets you laughed right out of the room.

By Orac's law, I hereby declare that Dr. Healy should be laughed out of the room.

Orac references Godwin's Law and Scopie's Law. I also nominate "to Seidel".

Godwin's Law:

"As an [online] discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

Corollary (often cited as "Godwin's Law")

once the Hitler/Nazi comparison is made, the debate is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress.

Scopie's Law:

"In any discussion involving science or medicine, citing Whale.to as a credible source loses you the argument immediately."

That obviously has the optional extra of ...and gets you laughed out of the room.

Scopie's Law: original statement, discussion at Respectful Ignorance, and the blog post here.

Whale.to: for those unaware of the ravings that is  Whale.to, the definitive guide by Kathleen Seidel.

A sarcastic and cutting, point-by-point refutation of a a piece of writing is referred to as "fisking" said article. A thorough, detailed, well-referenced, wholly comprehensive coverage of an issue should be said "to Seidel an issue".

Comments

[stev]

Dear Orac,

I have been trying to verify the authenticity of Andrew Wakefield as a doctor, and have not been successful. His curriculum vitae may be a fraud.
Certainly, the company he often keeps is members of the medical cult known as the Life Extension Foundation, or LEF. Other known frauds in this group are Dr. Bill Deagle and True Ott, PHd.

Another cult with medical pretensions is operated by Scientology...names such as Rima Laibow (real-life mind-control psychiatrist,) her hubby Maj. Gen. Bert Stubbelbine (Ret'd.) and Sepp Hasslberger over in Italy. Sinister characters all.

The whole thing is PSYOPS....a huge misinformation operation funded at $20 Billion plus.

I can be reached at my registered address.

Regards, Steve Z.

[Gott Truth]

Hi Steve,

Please contact me at [email protected] I would like to speak to you about this more