GOP Assault on Science; Tries to repeal science via legislation, and other stuff...

[rasputin1952]

"Earlier this year, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) introduced legislation “repealing the... scientific finding that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are endangering human health and the environment.” That’s right, politicians voted to repeal a scientific finding. It failed in the Senate. But if Republicans were to take control of the White House and Senate, the bill would undoubtedly become law.

<snip>

The conservative attack on science is old and driven by many factors: religious opposition to reason, Barry Goldwater-style anti-intellectualism, corporate muscle, and straight-up Nixonian lies. Nixon liked to play the role of philosopher king, privately conceding that the Vietnam War was unwinnable but declaring the American people unworthy of knowing so. There are some who resist science because of sincere if misguided religious belief, and others who consciously manipulate facts for economic gain. The result, however, is always the same: a stupider America less well-prepared to make good decisions.

<snip>

People on the Right prefer the more instrumental sciences that reinforce the status quo of war, capitalism and ecological destruction. The building blocks of matter and the history of the universe are to be mocked as the idle curiosity of pointy-headed and effete nerds.

<snip>

The ever-narrowing test regime is hostile to the spirit of creative inquiry that undergirds science. The worship of test scores as ends in and of themselves has hollowed out the knowledge they are supposed to reflect. In a desperate attempt to make the grade, teachers and principals are increasingly caught cheating on their students’ tests. This is what happens when society is run like a business instead of a laboratory for good ideas.


http://www.alternet.org/story/150854/gop_assault_on_truth%3A_why_do_conservatives_pretend_they_know_more_about_science_than_scientists?page=entire

[Brickbat]

1. And they say they hate big government. When all else fails, legislate it away!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. Barry Goldwater was extremely pro science, not anti

Barry came out STRONG against religious infiltration into the GOP, the irrational crap they tried to legislate, and the whole idea of a Moral Majority. He even said that the GOP was becoming unrecognizable to him before his death.

If he were alive today, with the very same policy stances, he'd be a solid democrat.

Nixon, too. Who passed Clean Water, Clean Air, EPA, who considered a national health program, who funded social security, VA hospitals, and opened the door to SALT limitation treaties? Who opened relations with China? He'd be a democrat, today, too.

In fact, I'd trade two Ben Nelsons, one Joe Lieberman, and a draft choice to be named later, for a goldwater and a nixon.

[rasputin1952]

3. Goldwater was an exceptionally interesting pol...

over the years, (although I don't agree w/most of his policies), he's gained a new respect from me. He was complicated to say the least, he'd be considered a "socialist" today by the Radical Republicans. After he retired, he was a very outspoken critic of where the GOP was headed, to be sure, he was no shrinking violet. I recall just before his death, he was being interviewed on live TV in AZ, (I lived in Northwestern AZ at the time, Kingman, Mohave County); he was asked what he thought of the current Republican Party...without missing a beat, he stated, "these aren't Republicans, they are shitheads." :rofl:

Nixon too wold be considered a "left wing crazy", because of many of his stances and policy decisions. Eisenhower is seen as a "sellout, and forget about TR, the GOP would like to disown him outright. Going back to Lincoln, the GOP has been a mixed bag of pols...but the neo-con movement destroyed whatever progress the GOP was responsible for. It began w/Reagan, the stupidity culminated w/bush.

Why anyone would even contemplate voting R these days is beyond me, but the delusion continues basically unabated.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. well put. I forgot his quote, but I laughed too when

I heard that.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. A Brazilian wingnut thinks Cantor's proof of the existence of many infinites is invalid.

I shit you not.

[rbixby]

6. So when you repeal laws of science, are they invalidated?

If so, then lets repeal gravity and see if legislation changes the laws of physics!