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Uncertain Principles

Physics, Politics, Pop Culture

Saturday, April 03, 2004

Joe Schmoe, Douchebag for Liberty

Kevin Drum's acquisition of the Washington Monthly has brought him a spiffier web address, but alas, has not turned up a better breed of comment trolls. Still, even a blind pig will find the occasional acorn, and thus we have this truly remarkable comment by "Joe Schmoe" to a post about the ongoing creation/ evolution debate:

Leftists just love bashing the religious right. The fact that, as a practial matter, these people have no real power or influence never seems to register.

[...]

Leftists pick on the fundies becuase they are an easy target. They are advocating crazy views that really don't have much scientific support.

But I confess that I see a more sinister motive here: Class prejudice.

Leftists like bashing fundies becuase they represent the masses...the great unwashed, the common man. They pick on them becuase it makes them feel superior. Of course, they are supposed to be champions of the common man, but...

[...]

Yep, the creationists are just a bunch of fat, slack-jawed hayseeds! They are working people who spend their days praying and raising children...let's demonize them! Let's build them up into a sinister force in society so that we can feel good about ourselves!

I admit that some members of the religious right can be hateful and intolerant. That's a whole other issue, and one where I tend to agree with the leftist point of view. But that's not what the creation science debate is about. It's just a harmless, nutty belief.

To paraphrase Jon Stewart, who knew this deck even had a class card?

But let's look at this closely for a second. Leave aside the claim that religious fundamentalists don't have any real power or influence. And forget for a moment the dodgy use of "really don't have much scientific support" as a stand-in for "actively reject all of modern science." Let's just focus on the class issue.

On the one side, we have a group of mostly-liberal scientists and educators, who believe that working class people everywhere are smart enough to comprehend the basics of modern biology, and deserve to be taught the true facts about how scientists understand the world.

On the other side, we have people who believe that it's "harmless" for large numbers of those same working-class people to hold beliefs about scientific issues that are not just "nutty," but fundamentally and perniciously wrong.

Which of these two is guilty of "class prejudice," again?

Posted at 12:41 PM | link | follow-ups |