clipped from: www.guardian.co.uk   
Polar bear v Sarah Palin

At denialism blog we have identified five routine tactics that should set your pseudo-science alarm bells ringing. Spotting them doesn't guarantee an argument is incorrect – you can argue for true things badly – but when these are the arguments you hear, be on your guard.


• First is the assertion of a conspiracy to suppress the truth.

Is it really possible to make thousands of scientists, from over 100 countries, and every national academy of every country toe the same line, falsify data, and suppress this alleged dissent? I certainly didn't get the memo

• The second tactic is selectivity, or cherry-picking the data.

harping on about long discredited theories and the medieval warming period ad nauseum.

the third tactic, the use of fake experts

Lots of his big names are the same hacks who used to deny that cigarettes cause cancer for the tobacco companies

others

quoted out of context

no credibility

fourth

moving goalposts or impossible expectations

fifth

the catch-all of logical fallacies.