Friday, August 16, 2013

#666: Robert W. Felix


Robert W. Felix is an übercrank who, as cranks by definition do, has his own set of homebrewed ideas about Earth changes (yes, Edgar Cayce stuff). In fact, his Earth Changes stuff is a framework, a grand, unified scheme that allows him to incorporate as much crankery and pseudo-science as one could possibly dream of. The pillars of it all are the idea of pole shifts and some confused drivel about cosmic rays. It’s all combined with a delicious sense of delusional self-grandeur: on publishing his chapter “Fatal Flaw”, a critic commented “With the publication of his chapter ‘Fatal Flaw,’ author Robert W. Felix joins such luminaries as Charles Darwin, Alice Walker, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Maya Angelou, Aldous Huxley and Walt Whitman,” which sounds impressive until you notice that said critic was Felix himself.

Earth Changes
The gist of his crackpottery is that the Earth's magnetic poles will soon be reversed, causing environmental cataclysms and then ice ages. His webiste Ice Age Now is devoted to this idea, and has – predictably – achieved a status amount to something like the Words of Comfort of global warming denialism (complete with survivalist paranoia and conspiracy theories to the effect that the government is trying to keep the coming ice age secret for unclear reasons), primarily devoted to PRATTs. There’s plenty of abiotic oil and abiotic oil lunacy as well; the idea of abiotic oil, of course, is among the most desperately lunatic denialist ideas in circulation and puts Felix in the company of luminaries like Jerome Corsi.

His other website, Evolutionary Leaps, is devoted to a crackpot version of evolution, developed (without much evidence of, well, evidence, or understanding) to support his Earth changes ideas. Jerome Corsi (indeed!) sometimes makes guest appearances to promote e.g. abiotic oil shit silliness, and the thing is a treasure trove of Velikovsky crankery, made-up evidence, quote-mining, and cherry picking.

Climate Change
Nevertheless, climate change deniers, who are generally known for the systematically complete lack of critical assessment of what sources they use, have indeed used Felix, and whatever he pulls out of his ass (mostly shit), as an authority (also here; some ramifications here). Cleve Blakemore’s Vault-Co also recommends reading Felix, but that is admittedly little more than expected.

As for contributor Alan Caruba, you can read about him here.

(Yes, I’ve pinched most of this entry from here - hat tip granted)

Diagnosis: Despite his valiant (though unintentional) efforts to portray himself as a spoof, people continue to take Felix seriously – especially climate change denialists who haven’t seen a claim supporting their favored position they wouldn’t endorse.

9 comments:

  1. hi
    is Dr. Don Easterbrook on your loonie list? I can't find him.

    Ken

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  2. There have been respectable scientists who have speculated on abiogenic formation of hydrocarbon deposits in the Earth (e.g. the late Cornell physics professor Thomas Gold and George Mason Un. physics professor Robert Ehrlich.

    Although the notion that coal is abiogenic is almost certainly piffle, and the notion that any significant fraction of oil deposits are abiogenic is highly unlikely, it could well be that some significant fraction of natural gas deposits are abiogenic. Methane gas (and liquid methane) in particular is ubiquitous (e.g. Saturn's moon Titan)

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  3. Speaking of pseudo-science: man-made global warming? The scientists pushing this nonsense on behalf of the radical left have falsified their data and covered up the fact that the planet is cooling rather than warming. In true Orwellian style, they have now renamed it "global climate change" so that "no matter if it gets warmer or if it gets cooler; we're going to tax it!"

    Oh, and the arguments of this encyclopedia would carry more weight if they were not peppered with adolescent profanity.

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    Replies
    1. By scientists, you mean every major science institution worldwide?
      The term climate change has been used since the 1950s. The IPCC was formed in 1988. Guess what the CC stands for?

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  4. I believe the more formal “education” a person gets, the more closed minded they become. They learn the so-called facts of a previous generation, who learned from a previous generation, and so on, and then cannot easily accept new ideas or facts when they arises. Some of the most interesting and disturbing new ideas and facts have been uncovered by individuals outside the scientific community, and only accepted many years and decades later when it becomes impossible to continue to reject them. Keep our eyes wide open, as well as our minds.

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  5. Oh man this is such a good blog, keep it up!

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  6. Damn this site is way off and s wholly inaccurate leftist dogma

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