I think this news story goes a long way toward explaining the existence of the Tea Party movement in America:
Study Suggests More People Willing to Believe in ESP When Told It’s Been Scientifically Disproven.
Newly published research on belief in ESP suggests a public disregard for — and perhaps even hostility toward — the scientific consensus….
I was hoping that maybe the great skeptic James Randi would have something about it on his site, as he’s one of the more outspoken adversaries of the anti-science crowd, but there’s nothing there yet… Speaking of the Randi, a friend and I were recently discussing his recent decision to come out of the closet at the age of 81. I said, “Did you hear that Randi came out?” To which my friend responded, “I’m skeptical.” I don’t know how well it translates here, but I thought that was pretty damned funny.
Anyway, speaking of the Tea Party folks, and their principled opposition to reality, I heard one of them today claiming that Obama wants to outlaw fishing.
That last link will take you to a great video by New Left Media, shot at a tax day Tea Party event hosted by Dick Armie’s astroturf installation company Freedom Works, which, if I’m not mistaken, had the foresight to copyright teabaggery .
Oh, and speaking of Freedom Works, did you hear that Lance Baxter, the voice actor known for doing Geiko insurance ads, got fired today for making calls to the organization, asking how they’ll spin it when a Tea Partier inevitably kills someone… I’m tempted to suggest that we start a movement to see him reinstated, but, posing as a reporter, he also asked what percentage of the of men and women in the Tea Party movement were mentally retarded. And that, I think, probably crosses the line… Then again, Congressman Randy Neugebauer, on the floor of the House, accused his colleague, Bart Stupak, of being a “baby killer” for supporting the President’s health care bill, and he got to keep his job.
[This post is brought to you by the Santorum for President campaign.]
14 Comments
Eww! Don’t say Santorum!
Sportsmen who were worried about Obama taking away their guns drove up the price of ammo after his election. The subsequent hoarding led to a real struggle to keep up with ammo for regular hunting seasons, (as opposed to imagined and stored for future seasons when the ammo had been outlawed) and the best part? It generated a huge leap in funding for conservation through excise taxes. Maybe we should let this fishing thing run its course.
Amen to this. It’s been shown in my class rooms that having evidence will sometimes make people go the opposite way.
Even educated people fall prey to this trap.
You should read “The Age of American Unreason”. It’s a good read.
Science is, by its very nature, elitist, and therefore undemocratic. In a perfect world, the opinion of every non-college-educated American Idol fan would carry the same weight as a nuclear physicist. Scientific articles, in the perfect world, would be peer reviewed by people standing in line at McDonalds.
I’d love to see a Palin/Santorum ticket. Nothing could be better.
Geiko should hire him back and start insuring families against teabaggery. I’d pay a few bucks a month with the promise of a big pay-day, should my wife lose her mind and start babbling about death panels and the conspiracy against fishing.
I think it’s absolutely hilarious that nobody gets that Victoria Jackson is doing shtick. The Tea Party people are so dumb they book her to speak to their rallies. I love it. There are even very few Obama supporters who realize she’s mocking the Tea Party “movement.” Everyone is just so incredibly stupid it astonishes me.
Even educated people fall prey to this trap
Maybe it would help if educated people didn’t represent facts and evidence as a trap.
Along those lines, I heard that our Marxist President will have Pelosi use her strap-on agenda to ban the consumption of rat poison for all adults.
All policy should be voted on by the people, based on fast food purchases. Instead of voting at the polls, there could be a number of different value combo deals at fast food places. If more people ordered the Obama Care meal, than that’s what we’d have. I’m tired of representative democracy. I want real democracy.
Yeah!… and they should bring back the McRib!
By McRib, you mean the Estate Tax, right?
Nature has an article on the current anti-science trend in America.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v467/n7312/full/467133a.html
Great article. I liked this part particularly…
“The four corners of deceit: government, academia, science and media. Those institutions are now corrupt and exist by virtue of deceit. That’s how they promulgate themselves; it is how they prosper.” It is tempting to laugh off this and other rhetoric broadcast by Rush Limbaugh, a conservative US radio host, but Limbaugh and similar voices are no laughing matter.
There is a growing anti-science streak on the American right that could have tangible societal and political impacts on many fronts — including regulation of environmental and other issues and stem-cell research. Take the surprise ousting last week of Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent Republican senator for Alaska, by political unknown Joe Miller in the Republican primary for the 2 November midterm congressional elections. Miller, who is backed by the conservative ‘Tea Party movement’, called his opponent’s acknowledgement of the reality of global warming “exhibit ‘A’ for why she needs to go”.
The right-wing populism that is flourishing in the current climate of economic insecurity echoes many traditional conservative themes, such as opposition to taxes, regulation and immigration. But the Tea Party and its cheerleaders, who include Limbaugh, Fox News television host Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (who famously decried fruitfly research as a waste of public money), are also tapping an age-old US political impulse — a suspicion of elites and expertise.
I totally agree about the McRib. By the way, I finally got one of those KFC double-downs. It was tasty, but way too small. It looks bigger in the pictures.