Unfortunately it is not a lie. THIS is a very big challenge for conservatives because we have been tarred with it, and not entirely unfairly so. You see it here. Almost every SunkenCiv thread or Asronomy Picture of the Day thread gets spammed by a strong anti-science crowd.
I am a scientist and a conservative, and I can tell you that conservatives have lost that argument. Virtually every scientist I know is convinced that conservatives are anti-science. You cannot change the perception by saying it is not so. There is a lot of hard work to do to dispel that view.
“Almost every SunkenCiv thread or Asronomy Picture of the Day thread gets spammed by a strong anti-science crowd.”
Very true. Additionally, there are a good number of anti Asian posts. However, I am surprised when anyone buys the liberal crap which passes for social science and, all too often, environmental science.
I enjoy the sunkenciv threads. Lovely photos. Interesting archeological finds. But science without skepticism and critical review is just a religion. I grew up with scientists telling me that there would be no more oil by 1980. I grew up with scientists telling me that the environment would be so polluted that women would no longer be able to breast feed their babies. I grew up with scientists telling me that we better all move to the equator because pollution was going to bring on another ice age that would cover North America with 50 feet of snow. Have there been scientific successes? Of course. But there have been failures. There has been science for profit. There has been scientific arrogance unmatched by any other section of our society......except for maybe professional basketball players. And if scientists are so stodgy that they can’t take a little ribbing, well, in the words of that great scientist Robin Williams, “Joke ‘em if they can’t take a f**k.”
Thanks AJ, you’re right about the anti-science trolls on FR — and there’s some truth to an anti-scientific bent in real life by many self-described conservatives and self-described Republicans.
It is, however, an indisputable fact that the Demwits are not in the least interested in the scientific method, only in using grant money to bring more people into their fold (by fostering dependency) under very easy terms — support their political agenda. That isn’t science, and isn’t scientific, and people who support the Demagogic Party because they’re doing this aren’t scientists, however they self-describe.
I’ve described it as “the political seduction of the sciences”, obviously a borrowing from Judge Bork’s “the political seduction of the law”. Where I come down on this controversy is, it isn’t immoral, illegal, or unconstitutional to have such grants, it is however where the battle is — how is the money spent? Where? On what?
Anyway, thanks again for the props, I greatly appreciate it!
No different than other challenges we face. Our party is terrible at pr and thinks if they show up with a big ad push in the final weeks of a campaign, they win. We are losing the pr battle 365 days a year because we let false conceptions take hold.
If we object to Susan Rice it is because she is black. If we support low taxes for the wealthy it is to enrich them. If we object to criminal scientists who manufacture data to prove global warming, we are anti science. It all comes down to changing tactics.