Nationality American Alma mater University of Virginia Education University of Virginia | Institutions University of Virginia Name Mark Hoofnagle | |
Residence United States of America Citizenship United States of America Known for Study of climate change denial Fields Physiology, Medicine, Global warming | ||
Sensibly Speaking Podcast #101: Denialism & Conspiracies ft. Mark Hoofnagle
Mark Hoofnagle is an American surgery resident and blogger. He uses the term "denialism", especially in relation to global warming, to label tactics he believes reduce public understanding of scientific knowledge. Hoofnagle, with his brother Chris Hoofnagle, a lawyer, he runs the website denialism.com as well as the "denialism blog" at ScienceBlogs.
Contents
Education
Hoofnagle has a M.D. and Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Virginia, and is now a general surgery resident at the University of Maryland.
Global warming denialism
Hoofnagle defines denialism as the employment of rhetorical arguments to give the appearance of legitimate debate where there is none, an approach that has the ultimate goal of rejecting a proposition on which a scientific consensus exists.
Hoofnagle writes about tactics used to "confuse public understanding of scientific knowledge." Together with his brother Chris Hoofnagle, a consumer-interest lawyer, he maintains www.denialism.com, which outlines their definition of the denialist's "Deck of Cards" — tactics used to derail public discourse.
"Denialist tactics are easier to employ than engaging in a good-faith dialogue about political and social problems. Agreeing to a dialogue creates risks, most notably the chance that problems needing legislative or regulatory attention will be unearthed," said Chris Jay Hoofnagle.
Mark Hoofnagle has written a "how-to" article on being a crank scholar. He has blogged on additional topics as far-ranging as gun control, homeschooling and supreme court rulings on genetics.