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You are here: Home / Annals of Stupidity Update–More on the GOP Hates Science beat

Annals of Stupidity Update–More on the GOP Hates Science beat

by Tom Levenson|  July 24, 201111:09 am| 32 Comments

This post is in: Assholes, Clown Shoes, Decline and Fall

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I didn’t get around to  flagging this on the day, but I’ve just arrived in Shanghai, and the China connection in the folly below reminded me I’d meant to write on this one.

I’m here to take part in a workshop for East Asian journalists on covering climate change, and for science journalism instructors to think about how to teach this odd craft.  This is exactly the kind of exchange IMHO, that might be kind of useful in a world in which a range of issues facing the public demand both knowledge and analytical skill manifest across society, if anything like democratic informed consent is ever to be achieved.

Sadly, this is not a priority for your modern GOP.  In fact, it is something that our empiricism-averse friends on the right actively seem to oppose.

That’s the conclusion I draw from this New York Times article, published just a little over a week ago:

A proposal by Rep. Frank Wolf, a fierce critic of Beijing, would slash by 55 percent the $6.6 million budget of the White House’s science policy office. The measure was endorsed by a congressional committee this week, but faces more legislative hurdles, and its prospects are unclear.

IIRC, this blog (others) have been on aspects of the GOP fear of technical cooperation in any form with China.  Wolf in particular has sought to block US-China exchange of information about their space programs, which the GOP has already banned, despite

….one benefit of basic forms of cooperation, such as sharing data and basic design criteria, could be to learn a little more about China’s opaque space program. Since 1999, the U.S. effectively banned use of its space technology by China. That also has a commercial downside for American producers in an increasingly globalized marketplace.

“Renewing civil and commercial space cooperation with China … is not a blank check and need not provide China with sensitive technologies,” wrote James Clay Moltz of the Naval Postgraduate School in testimony at a congressional hearing on China’s civilian and military space programs in May.

Economic and national security costs don’t seem to bother Wolf, who has already succeeded in attaching a ban on NASA-China Space Agency cooperation to a bill that made its way through committee in the House this month, (which is to say, fortunately, it’s still a long way from becoming law).

But that act against US interests is not sufficient to slake Wolf’s thirst for stupid.

Because of what he alleges to be Science Advisor John Holdren’s violation of the earlier rules on US-China contact on space, he now wants to crash the entire enterprise of providing high-level science advice to the President.  Holdren’s “crime”:

Meeting twice with China’s science minister in Washington during May.

Uhhh.  The top US science advisor meets with the relevant minister from, you know, the world’s most populous nation, one which is developing enormously rapidly, and oh, by the way, holds a gazillion or so in US government debt…and that great sin of conversation Wolf says, means that  “The Office of Science and Technology Policy is in violation of the law,”

Wolf’s remedy? Cut either 55% or all of the OSTP’s budget

Oh FSM!

Anyone who thinks that the Republican Party is actually a political institution capable of governing and suitable to be entrusted with a share of power is not paying attention.  They’re a cult.

That is all.

Image: Quentin Massys, An Allegory of Folly, early 16th century.

I do believe I’ve used this one before.  But I just can’t quit it, because there are some motley characters out there who so fit the image.

 

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Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    Ben Cisco

    July 24, 2011 at 11:15 am

    Stupid is as stupid does.
    __
    Over and over and over again.
    __
    In the land of the stupid, the person in charge is king.

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    July 24, 2011 at 11:15 am

    But science is based on truth by way of facts – and we all know facts have a liberal bias; hence, the need to stop this terrible relationship before it leads to people realizing that AGW is a fact, evolution is were we came from and that lack of government regulation leads to economic failure. Facts – like gravity, it is a bitch.

  3. 3.

    Cermet

    July 24, 2011 at 11:17 am

    Ben:

    Stupid is as stupid does.

    Over and over and over again.

    In the land of the stupid, the person in charge is king Republican. Fixed for clarity.

  4. 4.

    Southern Beale

    July 24, 2011 at 11:18 am

    Apparently James O’Keefe’s latest expose on “Medicare fraud” is another major fail of heavily edited videos. Shocking.

  5. 5.

    El Cid

    July 24, 2011 at 11:21 am

    “Climate exchange?”

  6. 6.

    Linda Featheringill

    July 24, 2011 at 11:21 am

    I must say I don’t understand the animosity towards science that is displayed by a lot of “conservatives.” I’d understand if they wanted to go out and collect their own data and compare that to what is generally accepted as fact. Or if they wanted to review the raw data and run their own analyses.

    But many people actually hate science. And that is so strange.

    Don’t know if it’s related, but I’ve met a number of people in my lifetime who proudly proclaim that they haven’t learned anything since high school. Maybe it’s some kind of rebellion. These individuals would definitely resist the idea that coping with reality requires one to constantly collect data and analyze it and compare it to that collected yesterday and the day before.

    Is that what we’re dealing with?

  7. 7.

    beltane

    July 24, 2011 at 11:25 am

    For almost all of human history, Northern Europe was an impoverished backwater, a culturally bereft place inhabited by savages and cannibals, inferior in every way to the great civilizations to their south and east. Perhaps this is the natural order of things. In any case, if the United States is the leader of the West, it doesn’t seem likely that the West will be in the vanguard of civilization for much longer.

  8. 8.

    Tom Levenson

    July 24, 2011 at 11:26 am

    @El Cid at 5: Jet lag, baby.

    Fixt.

  9. 9.

    gnomedad

    July 24, 2011 at 11:31 am

    Facts are disloyal. They will promiscuously lend support to anyone who pays attention to them.

  10. 10.

    patrick II

    July 24, 2011 at 11:31 am

    A counterpoint. The Chinese just had a train wreck with one of their high speed trains that killed 35 people.
    In the immediate aftermath (from NYTimes story)

    Photos on the popular Weibo microblogging service showed backhoes burying the wrecked train near the site. Critics said the wreckage needed to be carefully examined for causes of the malfunction, but the railway ministry said that the trains contain valuable national technology and could not be left in the open in case it fell into the wrong hands.

    So, the Chinese government was (according to them) hiding their own advanced technology, or in the eyes of some, hiding stolen technology.
    Either way, It raises a question of dealing with a less than trustworthy partner.

  11. 11.

    Frank Wilhoit

    July 24, 2011 at 11:33 am

    Lysenko. Trofim Lysenko.

  12. 12.

    Ash Can

    July 24, 2011 at 11:34 am

    @Southern Beale: I saw something on TPM the other day about O’Keefe dressing up in a kilt and trying to pass himself off as an IRA member while signing up for Medicaid, or something like that. That little adventure didn’t attract too much attention either.

    I’m starting to think that O’Keefe’s recent money blegs are a result of his Andrew Breitbart gravy train being derailed — maybe Uncle Andrew sees that O’Keefe is no longer hoodwinking the corporate media, and has decided that O’Keefe’s sell-by date has passed.

  13. 13.

    Davis X. Machina

    July 24, 2011 at 11:39 am

    A proposal by Rep. Frank Wolf, a fierce critic of Beijing, would slash by 55 percent the $6.6 million budget of the White House’s science policy office.

    But many people actually hate science. And that is so strange.

    Gingrich killed the OTA in ’96 because it had the temerity to take his money and then give him the wrong answers. Why shouldn’t the executive branch have to fumble in the dark like Congress?

  14. 14.

    Linda Featheringill

    July 24, 2011 at 11:39 am

    @gnomedad: #9

    Facts are disloyal. They will promiscuously lend support to anyone who pays attention to them.

    :-) Bitches.

  15. 15.

    Lockewasright

    July 24, 2011 at 11:40 am

    Anyone ever see Idiocracy?

  16. 16.

    Reality Check

    July 24, 2011 at 11:42 am

    Yeah why should we refuse to deal with people that have shown repeatedly to have zero respect for intellectual property?

  17. 17.

    gocart mozart

    July 24, 2011 at 11:45 am

    I saw something on TPM the other day about O’Keefe dressing up in a kilt

    The boy sure does like to play dress up.

  18. 18.

    Alex S.

    July 24, 2011 at 11:46 am

    @beltane:

    Yep, in historical terms, China is justing taking back her regular place. And it’s sad that there are psychological factors at play that accelerate that process. I mean, China has got more people, more ressources, less debt, America’s income equality is growing, the economy is stagnant and the most significant advantage, technological progress, is being attacked from the inside.

  19. 19.

    Reality Check

    July 24, 2011 at 11:50 am

    mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSLNE76C02U20110713?irpc=932

    Theyll defeat us all!

  20. 20.

    gocart mozart

    July 24, 2011 at 11:52 am

    Yeah why should we refuse to deal with people that have shown repeatedly to have zero respect for intellectual property?

    I know, I heard that Hu Jintao wanted to use a Pete Townsend song at at his public events without permission.

  21. 21.

    Reality Check

    July 24, 2011 at 11:56 am

    @Gocartmozart I hope that’s shark because if you think I meant pirated DVDs and illegal music downloads you’re very ill informed about IP problems in China.

  22. 22.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 24, 2011 at 11:59 am

    The modern GOP is the functional equivalent of the CPSU pushing Lysenkoism.

  23. 23.

    Linda Featheringill

    July 24, 2011 at 11:59 am

    Speaking of people who choose the stupid:

    I really think it is a choice. I’ve known lots of folks who were had very little money and not much formal education and lived in really out-of-the-way places and yet believed that in order to live a satisfying life one needs to learn something everyday. They might not embrace every new fact that comes their way but they are willing to look at it.

    Being anti-science is not forced upon people by socioeconomic circumstances. They have to choose that position.

    Why would people choose to be ignorant? I don’t understand.

  24. 24.

    bemused

    July 24, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    SouthernBeale@4,

    Russian drug smugglers? Wait, what? I thought it was Scots in kilts. Russians in kilts? Scottish drug smugglers? So confusing.

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    July 24, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    @patrick II:

    So, the Chinese government was (according to them) hiding their own advanced technology, or in the eyes of some, hiding stolen technology.

    More likely they were literally trying to bury the proof of their responsibility for the crash. Corruption is endemic in China, so it’s very likely that somebody high up in the project was engaged in malfeasance. On a project that big, it may well be everyone rather than just someone. There’s no way they’re going to allow a thorough investigation because they’re afraid of all the other stuff it might turn up.

  26. 26.

    Cacti

    July 24, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    Yep, in historical terms, China is justing taking back her regular place. And it’s sad that there are psychological factors at play that accelerate that process

    India too for that matter.

    Despite having their riches exploited by foreign powers for centuries, or not fully exploited by more recent home rule, it’s only logical that two of the 10 largest countries by land mass, and the two largest by population, would someday re-occupy a prominent place in the world economy.

    The difficulty in accepting this is largely rooted in fictitious notions of European racial and cultural supremacy.

  27. 27.

    beltane

    July 24, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    @Cacti:The myth of Northern European cultural and racial superiority is quite an odd one when you consider that even the alphabet they use to write their myth was taken from the Brown People.

  28. 28.

    gocart mozart

    July 24, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    @Gocartmozart I hope that’s shark

    As God is my witness, that was not a shark.

  29. 29.

    nancydarling

    July 24, 2011 at 12:30 pm

    This is OT but I have just heard of this idea of “coin seigniorage”. It has been bandied about at DKos and FDL, or so I’m told. Perhaps one of the front pagers here could address it. I find their posts plus the comment section always clarifies my understanding. This sounds pretty hare-brained to me.

    Here are some links to it.

    http://www.correntewire.com/beyond_the_debt_ceiling_the_30_trillion_plan_for_ending_borrowing_and_the_national_debt

    http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=10109

    http://www.samefacts.com/2011/07/debt-ceiling/phony-problem-phony-solution/

  30. 30.

    Kyle

    July 24, 2011 at 12:51 pm

    Yeah why should we refuse to deal with people that have shown repeatedly to have zero respect for intellectual property?

    Why shouldn’t we refuse to deal with people that have shown repeatedly to have zero respect for intellect, like Repukes and their right-wing tools like Reality Choke?

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    July 24, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    EPA wishes to drop the acceptable ground level ozone standards to comply with their scientists’ recommendations. This was (shock) ignored by the Bush administration and now (shock, part deux) being fought by US business and their enablers.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304567604576456443045913386.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

    Living in a metro area with among the worst ozone levels in the nation, I can’t begin to tell how much I’m pulling for the WSJ here, because my family’s lungs are unimportant compared with an unfettered business class. Now if that ain’t patriotic I don’t know what is.

  32. 32.

    Tehanu

    July 24, 2011 at 7:07 pm

    Don’t know if it’s related, but I’ve met a number of people in my lifetime who proudly proclaim that they haven’t learned anything since high school. Maybe it’s some kind of rebellion.

    Nah. They didn’t learn anything in high school either, and they bragged about that too — about how they cheated on their exams and got somebody else to write their term papers, and how they blew off the teacher. The ones who somehow got to college never asked any questions in class or in the prof’s office hours except: “Do we have to read everything on the book list to pass the course?” and “Can I still get a B if I fail the midterm?” Their only rebellion is against the idea that they don’t already have all the answers.

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