Casey Luskin and the Inappropriate Scare Quotes

Dave, I edited your post to center the image because it wasn't showing up correctly on the main page.

As further evidence that NM Science Foundation is deceptive go to their links page. It's a case study in ID-creationist ideological camouflage.

As of 3/13/6 there were 9 links.

The first and most prominent link was to the National Science Foundation's website. I can't help but conjecture as to whether this is an intentional and dishonest attempt to implicitly attribute some type of type of association between it and the New Mexico Science Foundation. Does Mark Burton want to viewer to believe that the NM Science Foundation is the state organization of the National Science Foundation? Given the close similarity of the names of the two organization's a responsible and honest Mark Burton would have explicitly stated that no relationship exists despite the similarity of the names of the two organizations. Furthermore the NSF holds a position that ID is not science.

The second link is to the National Science Teachers Association. Again, the NSTA holds a position that ID is not science and takes an active role in keeping ID/creationism out of the science classroom.

Next, comes the Institute for Systems Biology link. The ISB is a research laboratory whose work has zero to do with ID. Then STEM, a legitimate New Mexico science education organization associated with the University of New Mexico that does not promote the teaching of ID.

Only at the bottom are the links to creationists websites included in a less prominent location at the bottom of the links page. A classic case of bate and switch.

The inclusion of the above links as the first and most prominent furthers the case that NMSF (not associated with the NSF) is merely attempting to appear like a legitimate science education organization by implicitly associating itself with legitimate organizations, the most prominent of which are actually in opposition to the purpose of the NMSF and Mark Burton's creationist ideology!

This is clearly yet another dishonest tactic to obtain a thin veneer of legitimacy within science in order to attack science. I constantly ask myself, why the need on the part of ID-creationists for such subterfuge? Mainstream science is upfront about its tenets, but in stark contrast, ID-creationists continually play this sneaky game of ideological camouflage.

Of course, the response to all accusations of ideological camouflage will be answered by Mark Burton along the lines of Marion Anthony "Fat Tony" D'Amico of the Simpson's.

Fat Tony: Chief Wiggum! You honor us with your presence.
Chief Wiggum: Baloney! I'm not going to rest until one of us is behind bars.
You! You wouldn't happen to know anything about a cigarette
truck that got hijacked on Route 401?
Fat Tony: What's a truck?
Chief Wiggum: Don't play dumb with me!

bate and switch.

— attotheobscure

I'm a graduate of New Mexico Tech, and I'm proud to call myself a New Mexican when I see the splendid work you are doing to keep the likes of Burton and his IDiot cheerleader Casey away from the schoolhouse doors.

Thanks and Cheers!

What's so inappropriate about Luskin using scare quotes? I mean, he's obviously scared by facts, scared out of whatever wits he may have, at one time, possessed, or he wouldn't do so bad a job at his job. I'm just surprised he doesn't have scare quotes around every word, and a few more dotting the margins here and there.

scare quotes are simply Casey-struck-out's "tell".

IOW, they identify terms he is either misusing, doesn't understand, or has entirely made up.

the more scare quotes, the more content is being made up or misused on the fly.

go ahead, read some of his drivel and tell me I'm wrong.

the less he knows about something, the more scare quotes he uses.

Unfortunately for Dave Thomas, he has here shown his ignorance of what scare quotes are. Luskin did not use scare quotes, let alone use them inappropriately. He used a real quote. He quoted the word "sneakier" right out of the op-ed he was criticizing.

One uses scare quotes when quotation marks are inserted for a purpose other than quoting someone. Luskin was actually quoting somebody, namely Thomas.

Let's hope Thomas studies evolutionary biology more carefully than he does English.

He says that the "creationists" are getting "sneakier," but in reality it's the Darwinists who are getting more desperate ...

Scare Quotes The use of quotation marks can be extended to cases which are not exactly direct quotations. ... Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase from which you, the writer, wish to distance yourself because you consider that word or phrase to be odd or inappropriate for some reason. Possibly you regard it as too colloquial for formal writing; possibly you think it's unfamiliar or mysterious; possibly you consider it to be inaccurate or misleading; possibly you believe it's just plain wrong. Quite often scare quotes are used to express irony or sarcasm ...

** Thomas has replied calling my direct quotation of him here the equivalent of using scare quotes. That's a weak response because I'm simply quoting his own words. In the English language, quotation marks are used when you're quoting someone. That's why I used quotation marks around those words because I'm quoting his words and I intended to show that. It's not complicated.)

Thomas also objects to usage of the word "Darwinists" even though the term is commonly used by, well, Darwinists, when talking about themselves.

I'm simply quoting his own words...

Creationists aren't going away. They're just getting sneakier.

He says that the "creationists" are getting "sneakier,"...

When a creationist quotes something less than a full paragraph, it is likely some form of deception. If it is more, it's still not uncommon. If they "quote a few words" and then "quote a few more", it is a near certainty.

In Creabonics, an ellipsis means "lies follow".