Lee McIntyre

Lee Cameron McIntyre is a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. He has published books and articles on the philosophy of the social sciences, as well as attempts to undermine science and the appropriate response to these attempts to scientists. He is the author of How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason; The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience; Post-Truth; and Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior.

Lee McIntyre in 2005

Quotes

• The halfway point between the truth and a lie is still a lie.
  • Amanpour and Company (January 14, 2020)

• The first step toward winning the war on truth is to accept that we are in one.
  • Washington Post (June 25, 2021)

• Doubt can be overcome by evidence; distrust cannot.
  • The Baltimore Sun (July 30, 2021)

• Most science deniers don't have a deficit of information, but a deficit of trust.
  • Nature (August 5, 2021)

• Science denial is not a mistake, it's a lie.
  • Amanpour and Company (September 21, 2021)

• Virtually all conspiracy theorists are what I call 'cafeteria skeptics'.
  • How to Talk to a Science Denier (MIT Press, 2021), p. 38.

• The goal of disinformation is not merely to raise doubt but to weaponize it into distrust, and eventually, denial.
  • Deseret Magazine (July 27, 2022)