I've fantasized for a long time about the class on critical thinking that I would teach if I was ever given the opportunity. (I also fantasize about what I would do with the winnings from lotteries I never play and where I would go if I could time travel, but I digress.) We live in a world where there are powerful forces (e.g. Big Tobacco, Big Oil) with millions of dollars to spend sowing doubt about the scientific consensus on smoking, climate change, and more. We live in a world of self-styled experts who have discovered there are millions of dollars to be made from peddling conspiracy theories about vaccines, GMOs, the 9/11 attacks, and more.
A number of years ago I watched the 1999 Errol Morris documentary "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." and knew immediately how I would use it to talk about the limitations of forming an opinion without knowledge or expertise.
First, I would show my fictional class these three clips to provide the necessary context and set the stage: Fred Leuchter is an expert on execution techniques, including execution by cyanide gas. He travels to Auschwitz to take samples from the gas chambers there to test whether or not they were indeed used as gas chambers. He sends those samples to a reputable lab for analysis.
The result? "All of their tests came back, and they did several types of tests to determine whether or not there was any hydrogen cyanide, and they were negative. These facilities never saw any gas."
The clips make a pretty convincing case. He took samples, he documented what he was doing, he sent them to an independent lab... and no evidence of cyanide residue was found. That's pretty shocking, pretty alarming stuff.
Unless you know...
"The test was not the correct one to have been used for the analysis. He presented us with rock samples anywhere from the size of your thumb up to half the size of your fist. We broke 'em up with a hammer so that we could get a sub-sample. ... You have to look at what happens to cyanide when it reacts with a wall. Where does it go? How far does it go? Cyanide is a surface reaction. It's probably not going to penetrate more than 10 microns. A human hair is 100 microns in diameter.
"Crush the sample up, I have just diluted that sample 10,000... 100,000 times. If you're gonna go look for it, you're gonna look on the surface only. There's no reason to go deeper, because it is not going to be there. Which was the exposed surface? I didn't even have any idea. That's like analyzing paint on a wall by analyzing the timber that's behind it.
"If they go in with blinders on, they will see what they want to see."
A number of years ago I watched the 1999 Errol Morris documentary "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." and knew immediately how I would use it to talk about the limitations of forming an opinion without knowledge or expertise.
First, I would show my fictional class these three clips to provide the necessary context and set the stage: Fred Leuchter is an expert on execution techniques, including execution by cyanide gas. He travels to Auschwitz to take samples from the gas chambers there to test whether or not they were indeed used as gas chambers. He sends those samples to a reputable lab for analysis.
Clip 1 of 4- The trial of Ernst Zündel.From "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." Errol Morris, 1999.
Posted by A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep on Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Clip 2 of 4- Leuchter collects samples from Auschwitz. From "M...
Posted by A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep on Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Clip 3 of 4- Lab returns the analysis. From "Mr. Death: The Ri...
Posted by A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep on Tuesday, December 22, 2015
The result? "All of their tests came back, and they did several types of tests to determine whether or not there was any hydrogen cyanide, and they were negative. These facilities never saw any gas."
The clips make a pretty convincing case. He took samples, he documented what he was doing, he sent them to an independent lab... and no evidence of cyanide residue was found. That's pretty shocking, pretty alarming stuff.
Unless you know...
Clip 4 of 4- Leuchter claims are debunked. From "Mr. Death: Th...
Posted by A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep on Tuesday, December 22, 2015
"The test was not the correct one to have been used for the analysis. He presented us with rock samples anywhere from the size of your thumb up to half the size of your fist. We broke 'em up with a hammer so that we could get a sub-sample. ... You have to look at what happens to cyanide when it reacts with a wall. Where does it go? How far does it go? Cyanide is a surface reaction. It's probably not going to penetrate more than 10 microns. A human hair is 100 microns in diameter.
"Crush the sample up, I have just diluted that sample 10,000... 100,000 times. If you're gonna go look for it, you're gonna look on the surface only. There's no reason to go deeper, because it is not going to be there. Which was the exposed surface? I didn't even have any idea. That's like analyzing paint on a wall by analyzing the timber that's behind it.
"If they go in with blinders on, they will see what they want to see."
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