The crude anti-scientism of the left is actually more dangerous than that of the right.
The creationists want to argue about evolution, but don't really have a forum where they can do much harm.
And the climate change deniers don't do much harm, because the interest groups that run Congress would prevent any action in any case.
But the left...the left keeps insisting that:
1. kids should not get vaccines
2. GMO food is dangerous
Well, they should, and it's not.
A very nice, short discussion by Neil deGrasse Tyson on the GMO idiocy.
The creationists want to argue about evolution, but don't really have a forum where they can do much harm.
And the climate change deniers don't do much harm, because the interest groups that run Congress would prevent any action in any case.
But the left...the left keeps insisting that:
1. kids should not get vaccines
2. GMO food is dangerous
Well, they should, and it's not.
A very nice, short discussion by Neil deGrasse Tyson on the GMO idiocy.
8 comments:
Agreed.
The anti-GMO thing seems overwhelmingly anti-science. And I often see that behavior from the same crowd that puts "#becausescience" after everything they agree with.
The climate change deniers don't do much harm because, completely aside from interest groups, the great mass of the American people want to rhetorically be against climate change, but stop short of any plan that would actually cause pain to themselves. I don't think it's interest groups that prevent even mild steps like higher gas taxes.
"[A]nti-scientism" is bad?
You should read some Hayek :-P
Have to be careful here -- almost all of the anti-vaccine people I know are very conservative. It's, unfortunately, become a part of soccer mom culture in the mid- and mountain west. I don't think it's ideology driven, unlike GMO food.
Of course, it's dangerous whichever side of the aisle it's coming from.
I would not assign anti-GMO to the left either. Some of my most persistent friends on the subject are also loudly pro-gun and anti-immigrant. Same with saving the bees.
I've long said that as you go far enough left or right, you come full circle and meet people just like yourself. Left-nutters and right-nutters are... nutters.
I think it's important to distinguish foolish but mostly harmless beliefs (anti-GMO) with foolish and very dangerous beliefs (anti-vaccine). With GMO, there are no lives at stake, really. But with vaccines, we're talking about risks of reviving old and deadly epidemics.
On a different note, I think it'd be great if we all stopped using the label 'denier' for GW. The implication is ugly and unwarranted. Maybe you Prof. Munger do not mean it this way, but many people equate denying GW with denying the Holocaust. It's a terrible thing to say.
Lots of lives are at stake on the GMO question. But they are in poor countries for the most part.
Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy are "the Left"??? Oh please.
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