Ghislain De Roeck asked:

> James, can you explan what you mean with 'people with agendas'? 
> Who are they? Why do they what they do?

I would not have had a good answer a year ago.

Science has made significant progress this 
year in answering the question "why".  I
think that a few studies are worth citing 
here, as the findings have a direct impact 
on many beekeeping discussions here and 
elsewhere on the interwebnet.

"They" can be broken down into two major groups:
"Impressionable Beekeepers" and "Money-Grubbers".  Note 
that there are no "money-grubber-beekeepers", because 
step one of money grubbing would be the realization 
that anything would be more profitable than beekeeping. :)

Nearly 100% of beekeepers can be forgiven for being
so "impressionable".  One needs to do some background 
reading to get a grasp of just how hard one has to 
work to avoid the traps of fuzzy thinking to which 
so many seem to fall prey:

http://tinyurl.com/4myeyf
or
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/10/03/control-study.html

"People turn to superstitions, rituals and conspiracy 
theories as a way to deal with complex or chaotic 
circumstances... ...when people feel like there is a 
lack of control... they are more likely to form strong 
conclusions, even though there is no pattern..."

The paper I cite above may explain close to 100% of 
the surreal and confusing conversations I've had 
with certain beekeepers.  It was quite an eye-opener 
for me.

Why "the impressionable" are so persistent in 
supporting 100% fact-free stances is an easy
3-step process in the mind of the beekeeper:

1) I believe that xyz can save the bees

2) I want to save ALL bees, yours included

3) If I must make stuff up in order to 
   convince you, then the lying is for your 
   own good.

The 3 steps can make bogus ideas "viral".  
The less experienced the beekeeper, the
more likely the are to be passionately
convinced that they know better than 
you, and willing to make stuff up to 
win you over to their way of thinking.

The "Money-Grubbers" are a different story. None 
of them can be forgiven, as they are conning money
out of the general public in our name.

The specific agendas vary, but a common theme is a 
pre-existing goal, and an attempt to link the 
problems of bees to that goal, not for the sake 
of the bees, but for the sake of further promoting 
their goal.

"See, the bees are dying, we were right all along!" 
they shout.  They skip the part about correlation 
and causation, of course.

Examples of this would be nearly all the environmental
groups who continue to claim that pesticides have 
something to do with CCD, despite the clear disease-like
ability of the symptoms to spread among hives.

Sometimes, the money-gubbers are more naked in their
greed and self-serving moves.  A good example would 
be the NRDC, who merely put up a web page about 
"saving the bees", collected unknown millions in 
donations "for the bees", yet have done nothing to help.  

In fact, their suit against the EPA can do nothing but hurt,
as it forces to EPA to divert scarce resources from doing 
their job to defending against an accusation that is nothing
less than the sort of paranoid delusions that would prompt
involuntary commitment for 72 hours of observation.

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/080818a.asp

"The NRDC filed a lawsuit today to uncover critical 
information that the US government is withholding 
about the risks posed by pesticides to honey bees.
NRDC legal experts and a leading bee researcher 
are convinced that the US Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA) has evidence of connections between 
pesticides and the mysterious honey bee die-offs 
reported across the country. The phenomenon has 
come to be called 'colony collapse disorder'..."

Exactly what sort of pathology would result in
this level of paranoia?  What sort of comic
book super-villain would be required to subvert
the entire EPA?  How could such a conspiracy be 
kept a secret for so long?  How much would all
this cost?  Who would gain anything from killing
bees? 

But somehow, otherwise rational people don't even
raise an eyebrow at such nonsense, and some are
even willing to believe that such a conspiracy 
could exist.

Its complete nonsense, of course, but somehow, 
people are taken in by it.

How?

Well, the good news is that science can even
explain the reason for people rejecting reason
itself, and also explain why beekeepers seem
to be so "impressionable" in the absense of
the usual several gigabytes of hard data:

http://tinyurl.com/3sbcns
or
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080924-does-ideology-trump-facts-stud
ies-say-it-often-does.html

Where it is shown that, in many cases, even refuiting 
false claims does nothing more than reinforce the 
false beliefs.  (There are still two schools of
thought on this point, but each side has some
pretty strong data.)

http://dmiessler.com/blog/the-dunning-kruger-effect

Which explains why people knowing nothing at all
about a subject think that they know more than those 
who know a lot about a subject.  A LACK of expertise, 
education, and experience apparently gives one an
very unwarranted sense of confidence.  These
findings alone could explain the bulk of my
confusion in the period since 1994 when so
many newcomers appeared on the internet
with so many wacky views.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11009379/

Which shows that people are very adept at 
making decisions without letting the facts 
get in the way.  To make matters worse,
they get "a rush" from ignoring information 
that's contrary to their point of view. 
It is almost as if the human brain was 
wired to be stubborn in the face of facts.

More detail on this is here:
http://www.duke.edu/%7Ebjn3/nyhan-reifler.pdf


So, suddenly one can comprehend the statements
made by those who promote the idea that imported 
bees are the solution to the problem of imported 
pathogens, diseases, and pests of bees.

The idea is utter nonsense, of course, as the
easiest way to import even more exotic invasive
diseases, pathogens, and pests would be in
shipments of live uninspected bees like the ones
we are shipped every year.

A very clear example of what a bad idea this can be is the 
movement of Apis cerana into Australia from the nearby areas 
of Asia where it is native. (By "nearby", I mean that lots 
of trade on somewhat decrepit ships goes back and forth between 
the two points.)

The bees have spread, and become established in the Top End
of Australia:
http://tinyurl.com/3ho7c6
or
http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2008.09.28.10.45.archive.html

despite attempts to kill them off, and multiple claims 
that they had found and killed the "last" hive:


As a final note, I must make it clear that all of the above, 
taken together, clearly warns us that false and misleading 
information will follow the path of least resistance. 

It will get passed on by the people who are most eager to 
believe it, and are therefore ALSO least likely to do the 
homework to find out if any of it is actually true.

So, even the simple case of the "eager beaver beleiver"
turns into a person with "an agenda", spreading nonsense.
No matter how earnest, nonsense is still nonsense.

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