Maxims: old, new, and modified

Some people—conservative, free-market advocates especially, from my experience—like to repeat the old adage, "Those who cannot do, teach." Having known quite a few multitalented teachers, I've never given that phrase much credence. Regardless of this fact, I'd like to propose a new aphorism in a similar vein: "Those who cannot win an argument, play the martyr.” As inspiration for this coining, I would like to credit the following hilarious comment from Intelligent Design proponent William Dembski:

The pressures directed against frontline ID proponents are real. From your armchair, it is easy enough to say that we need simply to get to work. But families and livelihoods really are under threat by these Darwinian fascists, and when our days are spent trying to shore up the latter, the former does not get done.

(note: this is Dembski's comment as it originally appeared. After posting it, he made some unannounced modifications—including changing “Darwinian fascists” to the marginally less ridiculous “Darwinian enforcers”—presumably after realizing how crankish he sounded. His revised statement can be viewed by clicking the above link; it’s not much better. )

Unbelievable. Evidently the big, bad, evil, “Darwinist” scientists are really the ones to blame for the complete lack of scientific productivity shown thus far by the Intelligent Design movement! It couldn’t be that ID is a scientifically useless concept. No sir, the truth is that ID is being suppressed by the Man! That must be the most parsimonious explanation.

If William Dembski didn’t exist, some ethically-challenged evilutionists would have to make him up, if only to make their creationist/ID opponents look even more absurd.

(Via Stranger Fruit)