Thomas Edsall (gift link!) discusses the Republican War on Science with the help of many thoughtful informants. People who identify as Democrats mostly have high regard for science and scientific conclusions, whereas Republicans do not. This is hardly news. Edsall traces it to the establishment of environmental and workplace safety regulation back in the 1970s.
He writes "These pillars of the regulatory state were, and still are, deeply dependent on scientific research to set rules and guidelines. All would soon be seen as adversaries of the sections of the business community that are closely allied with the Republican Party . . ." This is of course the basic reason for climate change denial as it emerged a bit later, but it actually goes back earlier, to corporate denial of the dangers of lead in the environment, of tobacco, and of excessive sugar consumption. Plutocrats want to make money, and they won't let the truth get in the way.
Edsall cites Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway of Harvard, who "argue that the strength of the anti-science movement was driven by the alliance in the Reagan years between corporate interests and the ascendant religious right, which became an arm of the Republican Party as it supported creationism (which attributes life to a supernatural creator) over evolution (which explains life through natural processes). He quotes them directly:
As the Republican Party has become identified with conservative religiosity — in particular, evangelical Protestantism — religious and political skepticism of science have become mutually constitutive and self-reinforcing.
Meanwhile, individuals who are comfortable with secularism, and thus secular science, concentrate in the Democratic Party. The process of party-sorting along religious lines has helped turn an ideological divide over science into a partisan one.
But the rot has spread beyond corporate greed and religious fanaticism to become utter disregard for truth of any kind. There is no particular corporate interest or religious motive behind totally bogus claims about vaccines, 5G wireless, hydroxychloroquine, or the dietary habits of Haitian immigrants, among innumerable other examples I could give. But once a cult has abandoned regard for reality, anything can be true, or rather, truth doesn't matter. And that is the very dangerous situation in which we find ourselves.
1 comment:
Although I've suggested it before, I'll say it again: I think it would be an excellent idea to deny vaccines and health care to people who don't believe in science, since logically, none of those treatments are going to help them :-)
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