You’ve got to go back to the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 for a precedent to the anti-science mania that is currently sweeping the GOP. Then, the issue was teaching Darwin’s work on evolution in the schools. Today, the issue is global warming. Then, as now, large numbers of politicians tapped into the stratum of popular culture that simply rejects science as the basis for public or personal decisions. The chief prosecutor of high school teacher John Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, gloated that literal interpretation of the Bible trumped scientific knowledge. This resonated with large masses ... Read More
Question Time for Denialism
December 30, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
The "last Nazi trials" weren't even under way in Europe last October when the BBC put a Holocaust denier from the far-right British National Party, Nick Griffin, on TV. He was clean-scrubbed but nervous, a pasty plump man in a blazer and tie, and since the program was called Question Time, he endured a lot of right-minded abuse from the audience. But why was he on TV at all? The BBC said it let Griffin participate in its political talk show because his party had polled well in a recent election. The BNP, like a German neo-Nazi party called the National Democratic Party, has won some ... Read More
