FP044 The Tinfoil Hat Fallacy
Channel: Freedom Philosophy
Date: 07/09/2015

The Tinfoil Hat Fallacy is the claim that scientific findings are discreditable because they are state funded. While this is not an unreasonable claim, it is also an example of a fallacy called the non sequitur. It just does not follow that because science is state funded, then the findings are suspect.

In this program I explore this fallacy with respect to the mounting evidence that meat consumption is unhealthy, which gives rise from some sources to claim that such science is flawed because of state funding. Years of government claims that animal products are part of a "balanced diet", don't seem to get subjected to the same skepticism by these sources.

Non sequitur fallacy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur_(logic)

Atherosclerosis in Ancient Inuit mummies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6j75BDq6DQ

Iceman Was a Medical Mess
http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2012/02/iceman-was-medical-mess

Prevelence of atherosclerosis in combat casualties
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/073510979390050B

Atherosclerosis in the Masai
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/26.short

Govenment advisor on drugs fired
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/30/drugs-adviser-david-nutt-sacked

A report that exposes corruption of UK state policy forming bodies
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Health-The-Experts-Agree/dp/0852024495

Dr Campbell on how the US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee misrepresents science
http://nutritionstudies.org/2015-dietary-guidelines-commentary/

Report on cronyism in Canadian health committees
http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/626/530

Persecution of Galileo by the Catholic church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair

Public domain image
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair#/media/File:Galileo_before_the_Holy_Office.jpg