Eye Recommend --- Beyond the War on Science: Why the Right Embraces Ignorance As a Virtue

BEYOND THE WAR ON SCIENCE: WHY THE RIGHT EMBRACES IGNORANCE AS A VIRTUE, by Amanda Marcotte --
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/13/beyond_the_war_on_science_why_the_right_embraces_ignorance_as_a_virtue_partner/

A look at how the right is perpetuating the adulation of "stupid."  

"Spouting off about stuff you know nothing about is traditionally considered unwise.  But as the Republican war on science intensifies, ignorance has started to become not only less of a handicap, but a point of pride.  In the face of expertise and facts, being belligerently ignorant...has become the go-to position for many conservative politicians and pundits.  Sadly, it's a strategy that's working, making it harder every day for liberals to argue the value of evidence and reason over wishful thinking and unblinking prejudice."

Think of the way Republicans have recently begun using "I'm not a scientist" to defend their position on global warming or women's medical rights, while making it seem that scientists are foolishly delusional and should have no bearing on those charged with making intelligent decisions.

"For modern Republicans, being downright proud of their ignorance has become a badge of honor, a way to demonstrate loyalty to the right-wing cause while also sticking it to those liberal pinheads who think there's some kind of value in knowing what they're talking about before offering an opinion.

This mentality, in its modern form, can be traced back to the Bush White House.  In 2004, Ron Suskind of the New York Times interviewed an unnamed Bush official who famously pooh-poohed what he believed to be the shortcomings of journalists who insist that the truth matters more than fantasy:

The aide said that (journalists) were " in what we call the reality-based community.  That's not the way the world really works anymore.  We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.'"

Aside from the arrogance so typical of the W years, this sounds eerily like the Middle Eastern belief that reality changes minute by minute and so facts are flexible.

"The thing is, shameless lying and ignorance works surprisingly well as a debate tactic.  It's hard to argue with someone who not only has signaled that he doesn't care what the truth is but is downright proud of how little he actually knows.  Such a person is not amenable to being educated. Once the pretense of really caring one way or another about what is right and what is wrong has been abandoned, all avenue of discourse is shut down. 

Take Rep. Jeff Miller's recent appearance on MSNBC.  It was a performance that has become standard on the right when talking about climate change:  Dismissively wave away the scientific consensus and spout ignorance in the most condescending tone possible, as if nothing could be sillier than those scientists with their interests in facts and research.  Miller repeatedly dismissed decades of scientific research showing the reality of global warming as 'foolish.'...

...The problem here is that someone who is not only so catastrophically wrong but downright proud of being an ignoramus is not going to actually bother to listen to a (scientific) explanation...That's why the wall of ignorance is such a powerful rhetorical tool.  When you have nothing but contempt for the facts, attempts to educate you will only make your pride in your own ignorance grow stronger.  The more you try to educate the proudly ignorant, the dumber they get.

At the end of the day, the problem is one of identity.  The conservative identiy is one of being opposed to everything liberal, to the point of despising anything even associated with liberalism.  As liberalism has increasingly been aligned with the values of empiricism and reason, the incentives for conservatives to reject empiricism and reason multiply.  To be a 'conservative' increasingly means taking a contemptuous view of reality.  And so the proudly ignorant grow more belligerent, day after day."

How have we reached this point in our history, a point where one Party sees facts as the enemy and in which a large percentage of our population is unaware they are being bamboozled?