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AnimusRex -> The Taliban in America (12/4/2010 12:59:40 PM)
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The other thread about global warming triggered the recollection that what we are dealing with is not a simple debate over science or data, but religious belief, and antagonism towards the scientific community.
There is a streak of anti-intellectualism within the conservative movment that has always existed, but has suddenly grown louder and more powerful, rising under the cloak of populism- the idea that intellectuals are arraogant and elite, and need to be put down by the "common wisdom" of the regular folk.
This dovetails nicely with the rise of religious fundamentalism, the notion that religion can contain all answers, and is unerring to the last detail. Not coincidently, this mirrors the fanatacism of the Taliban, which despises the modern world, even more than other competing religions.
Here is a theme park, partly paid for with tax dollars, that asserts that there weredinosaurs on Noah's Ark
And here is a group that believes- seriously- that thethe sun revolves around the Earth;
Can anyone doubt that a Flat Earth Society is far behind?
We have always had cranks and kooks, groups that refused to join modernity; and the left has always had its share of conspiracy fabulists, but they were always marginalized, cast out to the fringes of the public dialogue.
So it appears we have a growing Talibangelical movement right here in America- a religious fundamentalism that is not fading away, but in fact is growing stronger, more extreme, and now they have powerful patrons.
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