Who is the unlikeliest person you know who is a science denier? For me it’s my African American boss who is a climate change skeptic, and my dyed-in-the-wool “worldly” Liberal (if you ask her) 70 yo mom who goes in for all these quack trends like the “anti-gluten” movement. (I am trying to think of other instances as well.)
Unlikely? Nobody I know. All the nutjobs I know wear it on their sleeve.
Well, I don’t know him, but Bill Maher occasionally veers into quasi-anti-vax territory, and his resentment over the concept of sending people to Mars is over-the-top. That said, he’s also very vocal about climate change as a major priority.
Don’t know any offhand. OTOH I just found out that Meatloaf donated to Rick Santorum and sang at Romney fundraisers. So who knows?
I typically slowly back away from people I know who veer into that territory. Still, I know (in passing, not really well) someone who was momentarily famous for it. I still shake my head to this day, but I’ve grown to realize denying certain aspects of science (like the Earth being round) doesn’t have huge consequences on most people’s lives.
His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
“You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.”
“To forget it!”
“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System!” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently; “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”
Holmes was kind of a dick.
And I would do anything for tax breaks
Oh I would do anything to end affirmative action
I would do anything for the 2nd Amendment, but I won’t do that
No, I won’t do that
This, exactly
And this, too :)
Every one of my far right-wing Republican family members (and friends we had growing up) have become extreme science deniers. I guess that doesn’t really qualify as “unlikely”?
So they’ve gone back to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, relying only in their instincts and, if they’re lucky, a few good sticks and stones?
Guns shoot bullets via magic and prayer is about how bad it is now.
Gluten-what-now?
It’s not good for you … look into it !
(Ok, this is not the point of the thread, but it’s annoying when things like this get lumped together with all that other crazyness)
Yeah, my wife has celiac, so for some people at least gluten is a thing. But it’s also become a fad.
Ya, I believe that it’s bad for you even if you don’t have celiac.
I mean, if it’s obviously bad for people with celiac, and it has no benefits (other than taste) then you don’t have to be a quack to think that it might be better to avoid it.
Now I’m hungry! Thankfully, I’m at my desk which is four feet from my fridge.
Used to make my own, back in my vegetarian days. Wouldn’t mind some now. Pure gluten, mmmmm. :)