Post #783665 by EnchantedTikiGoth on Mon, Feb 5, 2018 4:02 PM

On 2018-02-05 13:02, tikitube wrote:
I feel the need to resurrect this thread since I just finished reading Robert Suggs book "The Hidden Worlds of Polynesia". Not only does he create a straw man by stating that Heyerdahl believes that "all Polynesians" are originally from South America (which is not even close to what Heyerdahl suggested), but Suggs also treats Heyerdahl with ridicule and contempt.

It's really quite sickening to read a book that was written in a very professional and factual tone, and then to run across Suggs' little irrational tantrum about Heyerdahl near the end. What a creep!

I can't speak for Suggs himself, but usually what happens in these sorts of cases is that the actual researchers in a field resent the pseudo-scientists who have set the narrative in pop-culture. They want to be talking about all the cool research they've been doing, but they find they always have to be addressing the same questions over and over again, which have been roundly debunked over and over again.

Just by way of example, the other day a friend of mine posted this video to Facebook going on about how "nobody really knows how the pyramids were built, therefore, all my crazy-ass pseudo-scientific beliefs about cosmo-harmonic resonances are true!" So I posted a good scholarly article about how the pyramids were built in reply. I'm a professional educator specializing in earth sciences, and as much as I love Jurassic Park, sometimes I get a little tired having to address the misconceptions those movies have created.

[ Edited by: EnchantedTikiGoth 2018-02-05 16:03 ]