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

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

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.