Recently I have taken to watching YouTube videos in a series called "What You Ought to Know." Most of the videos are delightful little quips about common misunderstandings that attempt to inform the general public about interesting bits of information using humour and a likeable, sarcastic host. Basically its right up my alley. Most of the videos are like this:
Fun, right? Well, yes. That video is a great example of why I grew to like these short information sessions and I will invite anyone who doesn't want me to burst their bubble to stop reading now. Because I'm about to tear this guy a new one...
Okay, well now that its just you scorn-loving readers and I, I'll get into the reason for this blog. As many of you know, yesterday I was watching some Rick Perry campaign ads and I ended up writing about why they are homophobic and wrong. As a consequence of yesterday's viewing, today when I logged on to YouTube one of my recommended videos was a "What You Ought to Know" rant called "Gay Marriage." I opened the video and watched in horror as the guy I had come to see as a bringer of fun facts explained why he voted yes on California's Proposition 8 - a bill that ultimately banned gay marriage in one of the most progressive states in the union. However, his arguments were based on what constitutes the proper avenue to change legal definitions and he made some decent points while remaining fairly even minded. So I cut him some slack.
The video that came next crossed a line, though. I'll share it will you now:
Yeah, he just broke my heart a little. He had so much potential. So well spoken. So charismatic. So sarcastic. But the house of cards has fallen and now I'm pissed. This video is taking people with a healthy curiosity about the world down a grossly misinformed path. First of all, he quotes Richard Dawkins from an interview given in Ben Stein's laughably ignorant documentery "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." Dawkins has publically reprimanded Stein time and time again for the nature of the film and how he was misled about its message before agreeing to do the interview. All of that is besides the point, though.
What really pisses me off is the perpetuation of misinformation. "If evolution ever happened, it isn't happening now"? "We have never seen evolution take place"? What? For a guy who comes off as being well-read and well-informed, he must not have looked very hard for evidence in favour of the accepted scientific fact that is evolution. I'll let Dawkins do the rebutting by using examples from his book "The Greatest Show on Earth: The evidence for evolution." These examples, fittingly enough, are from a chapter titled "Before Our Very Eyes," its almost as if he saw this video coming:
1) The Lizards of Pod Mrcaru: A population of lizards was caught on a piece of driftwood and transported to an island they had not previously inhabited. Within a period of 25 years the lizards, because of a modified diet based on plants rather than insects, had developed much stronger jaw muscles and an entirely unique digestive tract. Given enough time, this population will surely diverge far enough to prevent breeding with the original population. That, by the way, is what defines speciation, its not arbitrary with living animals like our friend in the video suggests.
2) Dr. Richard Lenski's Long-Term Evolution Experiment: Researchers in Michigan have been tracking the evolution of E. coli using rigorous methods to avoid contamination for over 20 years. That totals to over 45,000 generations of bacteria. Over that time, certain populations of bacteria taken from an origin sample have evolved the ability to exploit entirely novel food sources based their environment. This has led to a dramatically improved ability to reproduce only in those populations. If the separate experimental groups were mixed back together the forms that could more efficiently feed and breed would undoubtedly outcompete their cousins and wipe them out. That's natural selection driven by evolution.
3) Guppies: Basically the same story as with the lizards, but over a period of a little over a decade scientists have monitored adaptations to guppy populations based on their specific environments and based on what predators are present. This demonstrates how animals can drive each other's evolution. There is even a fascinating side-bar about sexual selection on the far of the female guppies, but you'll have to read the book to get that.
To sum up, if the guy in the video could think as well as he could speak, we might have a formidable debater on our hands. Unfortunately he has fallen victim either to laziness in his research, willful ignorance, or a desire to mislead people because of some vested interest in denying evolution. Its amazing that people still need to stress this point but: Darwin was right. Evolution happens. There is ample evidence of it from genetics, fossils, geology, and yes even from experiments that have taken place in the span of one human lifetime. Saying that new species aren't evolving right now is to demonstrate how little you actually understand how speciation happens. I've lost a lot of respect for the people in charge of "What You Ought to Know" and if I watch any of their videos in the future, it won't be with the same sense of solidarity... and that's a shame.
This whole example just goes to show how important discussion is. Even when you think something is common knowledge, it might not be to everyone. Talk about what you know. Have intelligent conversations. Be curious about the world and question things. All that is necessary for ignorance to triumph, is for informed people to be silent.
Cheers,
Steve
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