Opinion of Penn and Teller

[dead0man]

Yes because only cool people cared before 1995!

[dead0man]

I don't understand how they are "conservative".  They certainly aren't conservative in the same way Rush is or Palin is or even the same kind of conservative that Dennis Miller is.  What makes them "Conservative", is it the pro-gun thing?  Is it the anti-environmentalism?  They only bash on the extremists (and use facts to do it and as leftists always tell us, facts have a liberal bias).  They are HUGE on showing naked people every chance they get.  They rip on Christian Fundies a LOT.  I suppose anybody with talent that doesn't hate guns and read from the Green Bible must be a conservative?  How broad of a term (and worthless) is "conservative" if both Penn Jillette and Pat Robertson are included?

[dead0man]

What reasonable environmentalism have they trashed?


(obviously how we define "reasonable environmentalism" may differ a great deal)

[dead0man]

Here is what the shows have been calling shenanigans on ("left" positions in red, "conservative" positions in blue:
Season1
talking to the dead
alternative medicine
UFO/aliens
Christian "Left Behind" and other survivor types
Second hand smoke
Penis and breast enlargement
Feng Shui
creationism/InteligentDesign
selfhelp/firewalking
ESP
dieting
ouija board and near death experiences
environment fearmongering

S2
PETA
terrorism hysteria/mad cow disease fear
monogamy
war on drugs
recycling
biblical accuracy
New Age BS
plastic surgery
funeral services
profanity/FCC
Alcoholics Anonymous
home based exercise equipment
hypnotherapy

S3
circumcision
monogamy (again) and trying to "fix" homos
911truthers, Moon landing fakes and JFK assassination crap
life coaching
critical view of Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Dalai Lama
political correctness and diversity requirements at Uni's
govt surveillance and govt encroachment into our private lives
gun control
ghost hunters
the Endangered Species Act
supernatural signs
needless luxury

S4
gays in the boy scouts/mormons
prostitution laws
capital punishment
WTC rebuilding
obsesive pet owners
reparations
abstinence only education

S5
obesity epidemic
Wal-Mart haters
colon detoxification
exorcisms
Minutemen (the border guys,  not opebo)
American with Disabilities Act
Mount Rushmore
nuclear power haters
anger management classes

S6
porno regulation on the internet
govt funded space programs
carbon credits
sensitivity training
child safety
remembering the "good ole days"

S7
astrology
video games and teen violence
dec 21 2012 idiots
polygraph tests
organic food
US tax code



Conservative?  I think not.

[dead0man]

(form memory of the episode)

Their main argument was it was often very hard on the rights of property owners.  They highlighted a handicapped woman in Florida who couldn't build a home on a small chunk of land she owned because there were Scrub Jays that live in the area.  Meanwhile across the street was a large condo development sprouting up.  It seems if you have money you can buy off the govt (also, sky is blue), but regular Joes get screwed.

They didn't particularly sell me on that one.

[dead0man]

I may not disagree with them on some of that stuff (like the 911 "truther" idiots), but how can one say being critical of Mount Rushmore or circumcision (seriously, when the hell did circumcision ever become a left/right issue?) is left wing yet defending Wal-Mart is not right wing?

I assumed the Right worshiped at the alter of our "founding fathers" more so than the Left and thus bashing those "dieties" would be something that pissed off the Righties.  I could be wrong, the left could be just as stupid on the matter.

I was also under the impression that most circumcisions done in the US today were done by the religious (Christian and Jew) and that the non-religious were much more likely to not be circumcised.  Thank you for correcting me.

As for Wal-Mart, I thought both sides have plenty of people with an irrational hatred for them.  I suppose righties are more likely to shop at them because of where most of them are located and many lefties do try and fight them going up in big cities.

[dead0man]

...and still, they aren't conservative.  Again, if Penn Jillette and Pat Robertson are both "conservative" then the word is much too broad to have any use.

[dead0man]

The idea that the practice of infant circumcision in America is separated from Christianity is inane on two levels.  First off, it couldn't have started without certain religiously-founded cultural superstitions (Google John Harvey Kellogg if interested and not easily squicked).  Second, the very same sociocultural factors that continue to make us an unusually zealously religious country are hard to separate from the propagation of other traditions.  Not that lefties are really all that much less traditionalistic, but Dead0man's point is going somewhere very valid.  I wouldn't call it left/right either, but I wouldn't call the show's mode of analysis left/right anyway, so whatever.

Why thank you!

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Basically they called a few people who professed to do Feng Shui and had them set up the same couple of rooms and explain why they were doing each thing.  All the people did totally different things for totally different reasons.

(again, from memory)