And You Wonder Why I Don’t Find Libertarians Credible
Posted on May 4th, 2008 by blue collar scientistBy way of Space Politics I learn that the upcoming 2008 Libertarian National Convention, at which the libertarian party will select a presidential candidate, was to include a presentation on the topic of “Inside NASA” by Dr. David Hoagland.
This, it turns out, was an error, and the actual talk is “Do We Still NEED NASA?” and will be given by Richard C. Hoagland. He’s going to talk about this:
Mr. Hoagland will … reveal –with official NASA imagery — startling scientific discoveries NASA, by law, has deliberately withheld from the American people for more than 40 years!
It is bad enough that every third Libertarian I meet is a credulous UFO nutjob, and now they are giving voice to this total whackjob1.
This is a guy who believes that James Clerk Maxwell’s equations were misunderstood and can only make sense in terms of “Hyperdimensional physics,” which says that enormous energy is available at a latitude of 19.5° on the Sun and every planet in the solar system. The evidence? Olympus Mons. (Which isn’t at 19.5 °, but 18°, a degree and a half difference.) No word about all the free energy available on the Earth at this latitude as yet.
This is the guy who thinks there was an advanced extraterrestrial civilization on Mars in the past.
And that the Martians moved to Earth and became humans.
And there was a similar civilization on Europa.
And on the moon.
And on Iapetus, the moon of Saturn, which is in fact artificial, kinda like the Death Star except maybe without Darth Vader and the big planet-destroying laser beam.
And that the moon civilization built glass domes which have been retouched out of Apollo imagery.
And that the Apollo astronauts had their minds wiped to they forgot seeing these domes.
This is the guy who claims that the Galileo probe to Jupiter caused a black spot due to nuclear materials on board.
This is the guy who claims the 9-11 attacks were part of a Masonic conspiracy.
This is the guy who says the Apollo 1 astronauts were murdered by NASA.
This is the guy who claims there is a clandestine space program, using antigrav technology stolen from extraterrestrials, which causes comets to explode2.
This is the guy that swore that the Space Shuttle main fuel tank could never work using conventional engineering, and something called “Torsion Physics” would have to be used to solve the problems.
This is the guy who repeatedly claims to have friends at JPL who provide him with inside information.3
This is the guy who claims to have designed the Pioneer 10 plaque that was actually designed by Carl Sagan.
And so on.
Now, if you believe anything in this lengthy list of Hoagland claims, congratulations. You are a nutjob. If you don’t believe it, you should understand why I view the libertarian party as the party of choice for cranks, lunatics, and other stout deniers of reality.
- And yes, the taxonomy is valid - total whackjobs are far stranger than nutjobs. [↩]
- Sounds like fun. But I’m pretty sure I’d notice if comets started exploding; you know, that’s the sort of research we do here at the observatory I’m currently visiting. [↩]
- I have actual friends with real names at JPL who deny they provide Hoagland information, inside or otherwise. [↩]
Tags: antiscience, crazy, extraterrestrial civilization, libertarian, libertarian national convention, nutjob, pseudoscience, Richard C. Hoagland, Richard Hoagland, whackjob
May 4th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I never realized that Galileo was powered by monolith.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Wow, I thought they lacked credibility because they have no useful political ideas.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I agree with you completely that folks like Hoagland and anyone who gives his ideas the time of day are complete whackjobs; however, I am a libertarian of sorts. I do not associate myself with the libertarian party, 1) because I’ve never been too fond of having political parties, and 2) because I don’t know the specific details of what the Libertarian Party calls it’s platform, nor do I care.
I do agree with the general libertarian philosophy of government though, including the idea of having less and less government spending. BUT, in my opinion, NASA funding would not be cut under a libertarian government, because research is a fundamental part of the evolution of a society, and if a government wants to grow and prosper than it must contribute to it’s own advancement, or else we would have never been able to have the technology to fight WWI and II, etc. Things like NASA are essential and not all libertarians want to get rid of it. Although, conversely, I can imagine a way for NASA to become privatized and still be funded like other research institutions.
I certainly agree with liberty and our constitution much more than fascist and socialist ideals of today’s political parties, and I have recognized the potential for the elimination of things like NASA if a libertarian government were to form, but I think one should look at the political aspects of the group as a whole and how they’ll affect society as a whole rather than that possibly negative aspect. Privatizing NASA certainly would not mean the death of it, and could possibly open new doors for there to be many different space faring organizations in America, which may even boost our technology through the competition. Although, I most certainly don’t think that our government funding NASA and other scientific organizations is a bad thing and it is certainly not a pressing problem, because our government spends only a minute portion of the budget on these activities anyways.
If you disagree with the libertarian philosophy on society and the economy then that is perfectly fine, I just hope you did not judge the party on this issue alone. I admit, it is pretty ridiculous to have Hoagland as a guest speaker and actually making the idea of eliminating NASA into a big deal is pretty stupid too, and this is why I disagree with having political parties in the first place; they speak for themselves and allow little room for individual ideas.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
IIRC, I ceased to be amused by Hoagland around the time he made an apocapyptic prediction which manifestly did not come to pass. I think it may have involved Comet Hale-Bopp, and therefore he was somewhat to blame for convincing the Heaven’s Gate cult to kill themselves. At the time, this strained even the seemingly bottomless credulity of Art Bell, though they patched things up before long.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:40 am
@Dallas: I (personally) have some issues with small-l libertarianism (mostly due to the necessity of recognizing that I live in a civilization and I like that very much, thanks). The party is a totally different matter, seeing as it appears, at its most fundamental level, populated with pure crazy.
Hoagland: I remember a hot and sweaty summer in 1998 wherein a friend dragged me to see Hoagland talk. Standing room only for what turned out to be a long, tedious and poorly organized collection of proto-Powerpoint slides. Arduous, is what I’d have called the “talk.” (There was no Q&A, and he went well over the allotted time.)
I wasn’t impressed then, and I’m not now.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
We need guys like Mr. Hoagland. He polarizes certain character traits (”whacko”) so that we are better able to recognize the supposedly more derived human traits (”not whacko”).
May 6th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Re. Hoagland:
In my best Werner Klemperer impersonation, “He DID???”
I blame myself. I had him over for grilled hot dogs and diet soda once, and I let him leave without his tinfoil hat.
If Masonic Martians didn’t colonize the earth, then how do you explain the pyramids… and Martia Mason? It’s a clue, dammit!
“Oh m’god, oh m’god! Mista Kottah! He’s the reincahnation of L. Ron Hubbard!”
That’s a misquote. It’s not “Torsion Physics”, it’s “Gorshin Physics”, as in Frank Gorshin.
“Riddle me this Batman! What does Mr. Freeze put on his bagels? … LOX! HA HA HA HA HA!”
Ok, I’m really having to work too hard these days to find any humor in these flakes. I’m out.
June 15th, 2008 at 10:38 am
You have to admit that something strange has been going on. If you are paying attention, you will know what I mean. Richard C. Hoagland, Alex Jones, Jordan Maxwell maybe people you guys would like to make fun of right now. I didn’t know what to think of them either until I made some inquiries. I have been told, by Lockheed Martin associates, of my husband’s, that Alex Jones knows what is going on. They also turned my attention to the Star Wars Lightsabor that was just sent to Mars. We didn’t hear about that one? I’ll have to leave it at that. You can start your research from there. Just keep in mind, that I use to think they were “wackos” too.