spe·cious

 [spee-shuhs]  

–adjective

1. apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible: specious arguments.

I love the word specious. It is perhaps my favorite word in the vocabulary of philosophy. I also have a particular fondness for false, but specious has an academic air that I like.

I also have a terrible weakness for the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens. I am a total sci-fi geek and I would love it to be the case that aliens were responsible for seeding our greatest ancient civilizations. However, what’s sad is that this program is also emblematic/hallmark/quintessential (so many good words for this, huh?) of the aforementioned and defined speciousness.

(Side note: OMG get to know the word quintessence. This word is THE SHIT. Once you get it everything is quintessence, everything else is mere shit. You were hardly philosophers, but you struck gold; thank you Mage [Wikipedia link here because White-wolf.com’s own entry (white-wolf.com=>Old World of Darkness=Mage) sucks ass.])

Sidenote from Hell right there, right?

I love Ancient Aliens, but at the same time it is total shit. This is my Jersey Shore. (I like the TMZ link because it captures the sleaziness absent in the MTV and Wikipedia pages.) This series (Ancient Aliens, not Jersey Shore) has all the accredited-guest-lecturer status of genuine science, yet woefully and exceptionally lacks that foremost and critical fulcrum of logical discourse: evidence.

I cannot undertake a full refutation of Ancient Aliens; it is far too broad and sloppy in it’s liberal dosage of speciousness to be addressed in anything short of an equally voluminous series. (Speaking of a voluminous series, see Carl Sagan’s Cosmos for the closest thing to a scientific exploration of the world, and a retort to specious bullshit, you’ll ever find on film.)

However, I direct the logic-minded among us (see, no appeal to the almighty anit-God “SCIENCE”, so shut your theist holes.) to check this show out. I have never before been more entertained and at the same time logically and evidentially disgusted. This show is an awesome triumph for specious science, with “expert” commentary, cool 3D graphics, and renderings of “true” ancient life. True to the meaning of the the word specious, this program has all the trappings of “good or right” but is “lacking real merit”.

The “experts” are lame. Many do have legitimate academic credentials. However, as my father, a PhD and Notre Dame Professor in physics for 30+ years, says, “any idiot can get a PhD”. Credentialing in your discipline does not mean you are immune to retarded and illogical ideas. I am credentialed in my own discipline and know full well many of my colleagues are quite stupid.

Still, I am mesmerized by this program in particular because it presents evidence so convincingly, and lines up credible experts so well, that the scientifically untrained viewer has little recourse against the pseudologic. This is the proverbial train wreck to which we are all compelled to pay attention, but from which we ought (link not for the weak of will) all separate ourselves and perform responsible logical analysis.

Who sits through an episode of this program and exercises critical thinking? Who questions the conclusions to which this railroad of a program comes? No one. Just me (with a nice Irish Creme martini and a couple Sotols on the books).

Nothing new is happening here. There is always a predominance of falsehood, in the interest of those in power. It’s not even malicious, it’s just merely decadent. People like such sensationalism, why not feed it to them? Ancient Aliens is the highbrow equivalent of Jersey Shore. This is falsely empowering eulogy that makes people feel secure in their perceptions, while in reality simply consigning them to the strata of simpletons.

The Sci-Fi channel is lost to the likes of Ghost Hunters and WWE Smackdown. The History Channel is obviously not far behind (though thankfully Ancient Aliens, maybe with Monster Quest and Nostradamus Effect, seem to be the only total farce programs.)

Speciousness is the hallmark, and the prime weapon, of anti-truth. It is wielded in great numbers by a great host, and with overwhelming influence. Sadly the weapons of truth, logic and validity, are in comparison meager and in short supply. I do what I can to slaughter the gremlins of falsehood where I can. Please do the same as a knight of truth and slay the cunning demons of specious clause as they arise, and replace them with the resplendence of soundness.