Friday, June 06, 2008

Extreme Depression

So I about a year ago, I think it was, I sent an email to my brother, linking him to Pharyngula -- we were engaged in some dispute over some deal of scientific import, as I recall, and PZ had a post on it.

My brother fires back an email to the effect of, "Well, yes, if that's what you consider a scientist."

WTF, I recall thinking. I actually went over and reread the post, I was so confused. Then I reread PZ's homepage, trying to see what he could be objecting to. PZ, not a scientist? I mean, I know my brother is on the Right and all, but...

Well! Here's the problem! And yes, it is, as always, even more depressing that I had been expecting. (And you would think I would know by now, since I do make an effort to read Right-Wing blogs, and I do brace myself and scan an article or two over there at Conservapedia now and then. But no...)

Via Tim Lambert and Matt Nisbet a study in the journal Environmental Politics (here, but unfortunately paywalled) shows that, since 1972, at least 90 per cent of the books that have been published disputing mainstream environmental science have been produced by rightwing thinktanks or authors affiliated with such thinktanks.
(Snip)

It helps to explain the otherwise surprising fact that higher levels of education make Republicans more, not less, ignorant and deluded. With their beliefs on scientific, economic and political issues derived from the Great Library of Tlön, every book they read, talk show they listen to and blog they browse actively reduces their knowledge of the real world. [2].

I don't need to tell you how upsetting this is. If educating them makes them stupider, we are fucking doomed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Their higher levels of education inflate the ego and give them a sense of entitlement and a fuck you attitude toward those beneath them. It's precisely what's wrong with our country.

Anonymous said...

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