Excellent Points
Both Squashed and Bunnynico had excellent responses to the Wright issue and I recommend both their analyses. Bunnynico suggests, among other things, that context is important in discussing Wright’s claims, and I suppose I agree so long as we remain, above all, committed to an evaluation that seeks plain truth (rather than one that seeks to justify or forgive untruth).
That epidemic racism and governmental malfeasance is a part of US history is, of course, a matter of record; that a reasonable suspicion of the government is hard to distinguish from paranoia is also true; but still: Wright should now know that his theory about AIDS is foolish; the evidence is abundant.
Squashed makes many good points and notes that the use to which pseudoscience is put matters, and that people in history have often sought simple explanations for complex phenomena. But we have more information available than they did, and while I agree that Wright’s message of tolerant diversity is laudable, and further agree that scientific validity is not the only arbiter of a statement’s value, I do feel that patently untrue factual assertions with no redemptive or artistic or philosophical merit should be called what they are: wrong.
But I’m tired of politics; check out Squashed and Bunnynico’s posts!