By Paul Krugman, NY Times, TruthOut
Excerpt
As I like to say, the G.O.P. doesn't just want to roll back the New Deal; it wants to roll back the Enlightenment. But here's what you should realize: when Mr. Rubio said that the question of the Earth's age "has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow," he was dead wrong.
For one thing, science and technology education has a lot to do with our future productivity — and how are you going to have effective science education if schools have to give equal time to the views of fundamentalist Christians?
More broadly, the attitude that discounts any amount of evidence — and boy, do we have lots of evidence of the age of the planet! — if it conflicts with prejudices is not an attitude consistent with effective policy. If you're going to ignore what geologists say because you don't like its implications, what are the chances that you'll take sensible advice on monetary and fiscal policy? After all, we've just seen how Republicans deal with research reports that undermine their faith in the magic of tax cuts: they try to suppress the reports.
Full article: Welcome Back to the Dark Ages.
