Republicans Expand the War On Scientific Facts

Congressional climate wars were dominated Tuesday by the U.S. Senate, which spent the day debating, and ultimately  failing to pass, a bill approving the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. While all that was happening, and largely unnoticed, the House was busy doing what it does best: attacking science.
H.R. 1422, which  passed 229-191, would shake up the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board, placing restrictions on those pesky scientists and creating room for experts with overt financial ties to the industries affected by EPA regulations.
The bill is being framed as  a play for transparency: Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas,  argued that the board’s current structure is problematic because it  “excludes industry experts, but not officials for environmental advocacy groups.” The inclusion of industry experts, he said, would right this injustice.
But the White House, which threatened to veto the bill,  said it would “negatively affect the appointment of experts and would weaken the scientific independence and integrity of the SAB.”

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/house-republicans-pass-bill-forbidding-scientists-advising-epa-their-own-research

Mitch McConnell had promised that the Republicans were going to "reign in" the EPA.

With "reign in" being code for "gut," of course.

The problem with Republicans and with a lot of things in America isn't just the misunderstanding/irrational distrust in science, I think it's also this false balance fallacy that so many people seem trapped in, the idea that a panel, report, book, article, whatever has to have opposing sides represented as equals in order to be balanced. So basically, if you're claiming the sky is blue, and I strongly insist that no, it's polka-dotted, an article or panel is supposed to treat both of our claims equally in order to be balanced.

Where this becomes particularly problematic for Republicans is that they also take neutral parties and attribute false motives to them. So scientists' secret agenda is fostering socialism and atheism, journalists want to get Democrats elected, etc. Nobody can disagree with them without being accused of bias and a secret agenda. I think that's basically why Fox News exists -- its conservative creators were wrongly convinced that the other networks were trying to push a liberal agenda, and they wanted to do the opposite.

So many Republicans seem to think life is a zero sum game -- if gay people's rights are respected, that takes something away from Christians; if minorities advance, that knocks down white people; etc.

So many Republicans seem to think life is a zero sum game -- if gay people's rights are respected, that takes something away from Christians; if minorities advance, that knocks down white people; etc.

And protecting the environment from life-destroying pollution is a liberal agenda and must be stopped because it costs money and jobs. Lives lost - jobs lost. They choose death every time. Who cares how many people die or get seriously ill as long as the 1% gets richer.

Lurker wrote:

So many Republicans seem to think life is a zero sum game -- if gay people's rights are respected, that takes something away from Christians; if minorities advance, that knocks down white people; etc.

And protecting the environment from life-destroying pollution is a liberal agenda and must be stopped because it costs money and jobs. Lives lost - jobs lost. They choose death every time. Who cares how many people die or get seriously ill as long as the 1% gets richer.

I think it's funny they even pretend to care about jobs. The Republican vision for a typical American's job is this:



... with no minimum wage laws, maximum hours laws, etc.

Republican politicians would look at that picture and call them lazy bums that need to get back to work.