The New Eugenics from the Looney Left

ROGER PIELKE, JR.
November 9, 2011

Chris Mooney, the author and blogger who once alleged a Republican “war” on science, is going back to that well one more time with a new book (above). In it he “explores brain scans, polls, and psychology experiments to explain why conservatives today believe more wrong things.”

Mooney writes:

“[T]here might be a combination of genes acting together that somehow predispose us to have particular politics, presumably through their role in influencing our brains and thus our personalities or social behaviors ..,”

Mooney promises to explain:

“[T]he real, scientific reasons why Republicans reject the widely accepted findings of mainstream science, economics, and history—as well as many undeniable policy facts.”

Gee, with an understanding of the “real, scientific reasons” behind such a disability perhaps scientists might develop some sort of medicine or gene therapy for “Republicanism.” The search for such a cure would not occur for political reasons of course, but for humanitarian reasons. The obvious mental impairments suffered by these misguided and genetically inferior people are of course not their fault, but perhaps aided by science we can help them.

In all seriousness, if you want to know something about the pathological politicization of science in the US, consider that Mooney (who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, and is probably a swell guy) is on the Board of Directors of the prestigious American Geophysical Union and is frequently hired by the National Science Foundation to teach scientists how to communicate.

I wonder how well telling half the American populace that they are genetically/psychologically/mentally inferior will communicate?

This article was posted: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 3:00 pm

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