Click here, and forward to the last ten minutes of today's show, to hear Professor Anthony Hall expose "Professor" Shermer on Truth Jihad Radio.
Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic Magazine, has been caught impersonating a professor. Oddly enough, Shermer - a leading 9/11 untruther - has been falsely claiming to be an Adjunct Professor of Economics at Claremont University, home of leading 9/11 truth scholar Dr. David Ray Griffin.
In addition to these impostures, Shermer apparently makes a habit of falsely claiming familiarity with books he hasn't read. At a recent talk at Lethbridge University, Shermer lumped 9/11 skepticism with UFOlogy and holocaust denial, and derisively claimed that he had read all nine of his alleged colleague David Ray Griffin's books. But when challenged, he was unable to name even one of them!
University of Lethbridge professor Anthony Hall, astounded that one of Griffin's fellow Claremont professors would behave this way, emailed Jean Schrodel, the Dean of Claremont's School of Politics and Economics. Professor Hall noted that Shermer had advertised himself as "Adjunct Professor of Economics at Claremont University," yet was not listed among professors at the university website. Quoting from Dr. Hall's email:
I must say, (Shermer's) illustrated talk seemed to me to be far below even the minimal standards for a university presentation. His approach was professionally and ethically substandard. Dr. Shermer seems to specialize in efforts to demean colleagues through tactics of guilt by association. He equates, for instance, those who study the historical record of what did or did not happen on 9/11 with Holocaust Deniers and with those who study supposed aliens from outer space. He groups all the targets of his smear job together without distinguishing them as individuals with various specialties, disciplines, orientations, and theories. With his dehumanizing hate speech and psychobabble he seeks to arouse the antagonism of his audience towards a generic category he identifies as "conspiracy theorists."
In the question and answer session I asked Dr. Shermer about his view of the work of Dr. David Ray Griffin, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Religion and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Shermer claimed to have read all of Dr. Griffin's books on 9/11 and found them to be entirely without merit. Thus, the distinguished Claremont Professor Emeritus, Dr. David Ray Griffin, was lumped together by another Claremont professor (??) into a general pool of Holocaust Deniers and such. All of this was quite shocking to me and I said so publicly. I was therefore relieved to find that Dr. Shermer may not be associated with your well regarded school in the way he claims.
I would appreciate an explanation.
The explanation, it turned out, was that Schrodel had never heard of Shermer. Whatever Shermer's connection with Claremont is - and it does appear that Shermer may have managed to milk some grant money through Claremont - he is NOT an adjunct professor.
Woody Allen's character Zelig, who spends his life impersonating people, became a human chameleon on the day he falsely claimed to have read Moby Dick. Did Michael Shermer - that impostor posing as a Claremont University professor - start pretending to be a Claremont professor on the day he first lied about having read David Ray Griffin's books? "Sure, of course I've read them all...and by the way, I'm actually a colleague of Dr. Griffin's at Claremont! I was telling him what an idiot he is in the faculty lounge the other day..."
Chewing on a cigar and blowing smoke from behind a greasepaint moustache, Shermer breaks into song:
(apologies to S.J. Perelman)
I don't care what you have to say
About what happened on that day
Whatever it is, I'm against it
Your thermate evidence is good
But let's have one thing understood
Whatever it is, I'm against it
Whether you've elaborated
Or condensed it
I'm against it
I'm opposed to it,
on general principles,
I'm opposed to it!
I've read all Dr. Griffin's books
They're pretty lousy by their looks
Whatever he says, I'm against it
No matter how he finished
or commenced it
I'm against it
No matter how much evidence
To me its all irrelevance
Whatever it is, I'm against it
"He's opposed to it,
on general principles,
He's opposed to it!"
My brain can't bear to hear the truth
I'd rather have you pull my tooth
Whatever the truth, I'm against it
So please tell that professor who dispensed it
I'm against it
"He's opposed to it,
He can't allow himself to be exposed to it
He's so opposed to it"
I love ad-hominem attacks
Don't ever bother me with facts
Whatever they show, I'm against it
I think by now you may have sensed it:
I'm against it
