Scenes from the Inquisition: heretic Nathan Myhrvold speaks.

(H/T: Instapundit) Get a cup of coffee, because you’re going to enjoy reading this.

Political movements always have extremists — bitterly partisan true believers who attack anybody they feel threatens their movement. I’m sure you know the type, because his main talent is making himself heard. He doesn’t bother with making thoughtful arguments; instead, his technique is about shrill attacks in all directions, throwing a lot of issues up and hoping that one will stick or that the audience becomes confused by the chaos.

Although not for the reasons Mr. Myhrvold thinks.  He thinks that he’s correcting some unfortunate, hysterical, and inaccurate criticisms of his work that were made by a anti-carbon enthusiast; what he’s actually done is help legitimize the religious fanatic by taking him seriously enough to address.  At great length.  Which will now be seized upon by said religious fanatic and parsed until he can find something else to hammer Myhrvold on, thus hopefully sparking another rebuttal in the Freakonomics NYT blog.

Well, this is how you learn to learn better.  The sooner Myhrvold works out that this has more to do with theology instead of politics – and that he’s the heretic – the happier he’ll end up being.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.