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Re: [Phys-l] The Perils of American Stupidity

Just look at the Republican dominated TX board of education which
distributed religious literature about evolution. But a person who merely
publicized a lecture on a topic that was deemed off the table had to resign.
The Tea party nominees have often expressed anti-science and fundamentalist
positions, so the tea party is not purely an organization focusing on
economic issues. It is part of the fundamentalist alliance with the
Republicans. And then there is the Virginia attorney general. Virtually
all of the anti-evolution members are Republicans in the state boards of
education.

There have been and are many conservatives who do not hold to this ideology,
but at present all you need to do is look at surveys of the American peopld.
Those who call themselves conservative are much more likely to deny
evolution and global warming. The Republicans have benefited at the ballot
box by this alliance, so they will not come out and say that teaching
creation science in school is bad science and unconstitutional.

This is strategic alliance which benefits Republicans. I am sure that the
traditional conservatives like Buckley would have been aghast at this
alliance. This is not a liberal-conservative issue, but a large fraction of
conservatives are now Fundamentalists with views on global warming which
depend on religious ideology. Apparently there seems to be a linkage
between disparate issues in their minds. I have a brother who has become
one of these, and he is totally unreasoning now. He links all social and
political conservative issues together and believes in the 6000 year old
earth with no evolution of the species.

Bush at least downplayed his scoffing at evolution, and did reach out to all
faiths and races. But he was a Fundamentalist but with the political good
sense to not be pushy about it. This alliance will only go away with
changes in society. At present younger people are no longer as attracted to
the churches which espouse this type of ideolology, and an increasingly
larger number of people are putting themselves down as no religious
preference. Whether this is good or bad is debatable, but the
Fundamentalist movement has been declining. They used to be politically
neutral, but in face of the decline have been asserting themselves.

Make no mistake, there are likely to be witch hunts against the
climatologists who are predicting dramatic global warming, and tea party
people will be in the forefront. We will be seeing lots of bad science
being put forth in the Congress.

There is really no linkage between economic conservatism, social
conservatism, global warming, and evolution. Each is a separate issue, but
they have become linked.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX



I take strong issue with these posts characterizing the American Right as
stupid and/or ignorant.
These is often the characterization made by people on the Left. Since I
am a Conservative and a
scientist, it is my experience that these characterizations are largely
false. While it is true that there is
somewhat less support for anti-global warming initiatives on the Right, it
is largely because of the
politization of climate science and sloppy science. The Right is not
dominated by the Religious Right
presently, rather it is dominated by the Tea Party ideals, which are
primarily based on the Constitution
in its present form, the idea of smaller, more efficient government, a
properly-regulated capitalist
economy, and reduced government spending. The majority of Americans are
anti-abortion, but neither
side of the argument is stupid for holding the belief. The Tea Party is
not promoting Creationism, nor
Intelligent Design. I have also failed to see the anti-intellectualism in
the Tea Party that you all have
spoken about. You are speaking in stereotypes and repeating things you've
heard without taking time
to find out what people really think.




On 9 Nov 2010 at 16:46, Marty Weiss wrote:

The original post was NOT written by the phys-l poster. Here is the
original title:

The Perils of American Stupidity

Written by John Berthelsen Friday, 29 October 2010 A rising tide
of
willful ignorance threatens the foundations of the United States

Berthelsen is editor of the Asia Sentinel, a web-based publication,
founded in 2006. The author earlier worked for the Asian Wall Street
Journal and later for a bank, so he is not some random blogger.

Evidently, this is how the rest of the world looks at the United States;
a sad commentary on the goings-on in our country, being taken over by an
anti-intellectual / anti-scientific mind set. Of course, one could
argue that this country has long been anti-intellectual. The recent
derision of so-called *east-coast and *left-coast* elites* reflects only
the most virulent of these attacks and now that the Tea Partiers are in
power we will see a lot more such antics coming from Washington and
certain areas of the country known for ignorant, bigoted, and anti-
scientific attitudes. It is a sad time for progress in science and
global relations as we turn more parochial and inward in our official
thinking and attitude.

Marty





I
On Nov 9, 2010, at 4:15 PM, John Clement wrote:


There is currently a linkage between being anti-religious,
environmentalist,
Evolution, research based education, and many other left wing issues
such as
abortion in the minds of many people.

This was not true in the not so
distant past when environmentalism was non partisan and supported by
both
parties. But now one party has definitely gotten into bed with the
fundamentalist religious right.

So I would agree that the tone of the orginal post was very political,
but
the issues of impending witch hunts against science is unfortunately
political.
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