
Life’s Work: An Interview with Penn Jillette - nkurz
https://hbr.org/2016/10/penn-jillette
======
ideonexus
I have a strong dislike for Penn Jillette. His show "Bullshit" was often
guilty of the same smoke-and-mirrors rhetorical tricks of which they accused
others. This became apparent to me when I watched the episode on climate
change, where they failed to interview a single scientist on the subject and
Penn later suggested he hated the theory because Al Gore was promoting it [1].
The only evidence I can find of his recanting his position on the science is a
reddit thread [2]; meanwhile, to this day, I have Climate Change skeptics
throwing the Dihydrogen monoxide hoax [3] episode in my face as proof that
Climate Change isn't real.

As a rational atheist skeptic, it drives me up the wall that this guy is on
the same side as me. When he sounds smart, it's because he's plagiarizing Carl
Sagan, Richard Dawkins, and other skeptics who are smarter than him.

[1] [http://reason.com/blog/2008/07/03/penn-teller-and-climate-
ch...](http://reason.com/blog/2008/07/03/penn-teller-and-climate-change)

[2]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/26o6o9/what_is_the...](https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/26o6o9/what_is_the_deal_with_penn_jillette_and_climate/)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax)

~~~
cornchips
As much of a rational atheist skeptic you may think you are, I believe you are
twisting words. They actually conclude the episode with "I don't know".

If anything he was calling out those manipulating "green" for their own
agendas -- and people "connecting" to river rocks.

The bullshit is the lack of consistency. Which one is to be feared: Warming?
Cooling? Change? ... Hard to argue change ... What if we can't do anything
about it? Are you truly sure the cause is CO2 or is CO2 just an indicator of a
warming event?

Gore is a politician and charlatan. [1] Like many attached to the movement, a
hypocrite and profiting without any realistic solutions that won't detriment
the ecosystem, economy or quality of life in any other manner.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore#Criticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore#Criticism)

~~~
Frondo
They don't need to know, but if we were talking about something less
politicized by the fossil fuel industry, we'd think they were idiots for not
deferring to the generally accepted science and instead saying "I don't know."

Like, say they were doing a show on the big bang. That's a pretty non-
controversial thing, but we obviously don't _know_ what happened back then.
Still, we sure don't see a whole lot of big bang skeptics around (and probably
a lot of us here would think they were being willfully ignorant or coy to say
"well, I don't know, I wasn't there"). Big bang skepticism isn't an unofficial
part of a major political party, either. What's the difference here, I wonder.

~~~
dTal
>Big bang skepticism isn't an unofficial part of a major political party,
either.

Isn't it?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_right](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_right)

~~~
spdustin
It shouldn't be. It was a Catholic priest who came up with the idea.

------
ucy
Teller is the best part of the couple. What tops "The word made flesh" as an
magic act?
[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/11/a-memory...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/11/a-memory-
of-the-nineteen-nineties/376995/)

------
tn13
Penn Jillette is an amazing person. What makes America such a great country is
the existence of large number of libertarian business men, leaders and public
figures.

In other countries it is uneconomical for most public figures to be critical
of their government.

------
hyperpallium
> And yet my heaviest and most important conversations are with Teller. When
> our parents died, we were the first ones we went to. When I was going to
> have children and get married, he was the first person I talked to.

