Among the ritualized horrors of the Great People’s Cultural Revolution in China were the criticism-self-criticism sessions mandated for those insufficiently committed to the program. These public auto da fé sessions reached the highest level of Chinese governments, up to and including Deng Xiaoping.
I trust I won’t be accused of Godwinization (not that I care, to be sure) if I marvel a little at what amounts to a detectable echo of such formalized self effacement in today’s Republican party. The overt and paralyzing violence of the Red Guards is not there of course, which makes this not a comparison, but a reference. But still, it’s hard not to recall those days watching leading members of what used to be a party capable of actual governance abase themselves before the inquisitors who now dominate the Republican Party’s election process.
Case in point: several of the current candidates for the Republican nomination for President used to be able to hear and process scientific information that led them to the conclusion that human activities are affecting the climate, and that such anthropogenic climate change is a very dangerous thing.
Now, this isn’t new. The know-nothing (and or bought-and-paid-for-by-Big-Oil) wing of the party has spent years trading in bad science to prevent this realization from becoming a true bi-partisan consensus. The success of this effort was manifest last year when every GOP Senate candidate in the midterms declared his or her disbelief in the threat posed by climate change. That’s 37 candidates and 37 who think we should just burn up all that dinosaur wine as fast as we can get our hands on it.*
All of which is to repeat the obvious: climate denialism is dogma for the Republican party.
Which is a problem when one wants to be President, is a Republican, and has a history of some sanity on this issue.
Factio Grandaeva Delenda Est — Climate Science editionPost + Comments (51)