Another Reason for the Right to Hate Science

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



Another Reason for the Right to Hate Science
Conservatives expected human genome research to help prove that nature, not unequal social orders, determines who ends up sick and poor. But our genes have refused to cooperate.

By Sam Pizzigati


A clinical psychologist noted for his observations on how inequality impacts what’s happening in our heads is now sharing some fascinating insights, based on new research, about how much inequality reflects what’s going on in our genes.

This British clinical psychologist, Oliver James, has written widely over recent years about what he calls “affluenza,” the inequality-induced “virus” that has us placing an ever higher value on money, possessions, and fame.

Affluenza, James has pointed out, varies widely by society. The more unequal a society’s distribution of income and wealth, the more affluenza and the higher the incidence of the mental illnesses that affluenza so reliably engenders.

Apologists for unequal social orders have always, of course, disputed any linkage between mental illness and the economic and social environment. That low-income people suffer depression at double the levels of high-income people, these apologists believe, suggests only that people at the bottom come born into the world with more “personal deficiencies” than people at the top.

“The political right believes that genes largely explain why the poor are poor, as well as twice as likely as the rich to be mentally ill,” as James notes. “To them, the poor are genetic mud, sinking to the bottom of the genetic pool.” .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/another-reason-for-the-right-to-hate-science/

[kestrel91316]

1. “To them, the poor are genetic mud, sinking to the bottom of the genetic pool.”

That's why the ultra right refers to them as "mud people".

[Demeter]

2. The Only correlation found to date is between mental illness and conservatism

and since mental illness is genetically predispositioned, so too is conservatism, or batshit craziness, as we say in the party.

hmmmm......