The GOP has many people who deliberately refuse to understand simple things. The preservation of the status quo trumps change efforts. Indeed, much of that party is predicated on reproducing mistakes of the past which is why they worked very hard to disable all the bank regulations of the FDR administration and thus, reproduced the Great Depression. Understanding science is important not because scientists are always right, often, they can deceive themselves, but because scientific debate is how we discover how reality functions. Even then, it is difficult. But being deliberately stupid isn’t a debate point. It is pointless. In today’s story, a Washington State member of the transportation committee who is a right wing Republican discusses CO2 production systems in an artlessly stupid fashion. Continue reading →