Thursday, September 18th, 2014
Stephan: Here is the latest in the Theocratic Right's determined drive to create willful ignorance. The sad truth is that the level of hate, fear, and anger has reached such a level in this country that we are literally tearing ourselves apart. And there is a dedicated intention on the part of the Right in support of a parallel world that is emotionally volcanic.
I have people write me and say, Oh both sides do it. No, that is not true. It is a false equivalency. I find nothing on the social progressive side that mirrors this.
I did a radio program called Coast-to-Coast last night. It was very difficult because there was something wrong with the phone line that came into the house, and it made the whole thing awkward. In the end I was not able to do the third hour. Anyway, C-2-C has about 4 million listeners, and I talked principally about my conviction that if people would just make the commitment to choose at any decision point the most compassionate and life-affirming option the country would become more vital and happier.
This morning my mailbox was filled with emails mostly from angry vituperative people calling me a N***er Lover, and Communist. Communist! No one in the world talks about communism anymore except the American Theocratic Right. To these people I am a "traitor to all American patriots." Amazing stuff, totally fact-free ad hominems basically nothing but people puking up their hate, fear, ignorance, and anger. Dozens of them, some emails running to multiple pages. I found it a fascinating window into Red value America. But very sad and depressing. What must it be like to go around like that all day, every day?
Texas has proposed re-writing school text books to incorporate passages denying the existence of climate change and promoting the discredited views of an ultra-conservative think tank.
The proposed text books – which come up for public hearing at the Texas state board of education on Tuesday – were already attracting criticism when it emerged that the science section had been altered to reflect the doctrine of the Heartland Institute, which has been funded by the Koch oil billionaires.
A report from the Texas Freedom Network and the National Centre for Science Education on Monday [3] found a number of instances where the proposed texts rejected recognised science.
In the proposed 6th grade texts, students were introduced to global warming amid false claims that there was scientific disagreement about its causes.
‘Scientists agree that Earth’s climate is changing. They do not agree on what is causing the change,” the passage reads.
It quotes two staffers at the Heartland Institute who are not scientists.
An entry in the Texas school texts making false claims about the driver of climate change.
Texas Freedom Network
However, as the analysis noted, there is no […]
