Theodore Dalrymple

It was mostly a pleasure to read the author’s dissection of selections from the NEJM in 2017. Writing under a pseudonym, he covers problems in logic and philosophy and some in statistics. Most of these are well-known, but journal articles can be stultifying, and Dalrymple can cut through bullshit like a knife. On the other hand, his role here is the curmudgeon, and he is sometimes merely argumentative. So, he specifically admits to ignorance about the earth sciences, but then presents his potentially destructive opinions about global warming; he attacks the use of B.C.E. for B.C. in a footnote calling it contemptible; he strongly believes that it is inappropriate to see drug addiction as a disease; and, although he is most helpful to us when logical fallacies are revealed, he might be accused of occasionally succumbing to a false analogy, appealing to ridicule, steering us to a slippery slope, and using a rare vacuous truth.… (mere)