Obviously the Republican anthropomorphic climate change deniers are Darwinist enough not to worry about their grandchildren. If the grandchildren aren't strong enough to survive and prosper in the new environment, then they deserve to die. Or something.
Or maybe they are hoping the wealth which they will have accumulated from all of these corporate donors will keep their grandchildren alive and well at the expense of poorer grandchildren from less well-heeled grandparents.
Either case seems pretty damn short-sighted. But it isn't as if our elected officials are as clever or educated as the average civil servant: if they were, they couldn't appeal to the voters.
I mean it sometimes seems that almost everyone regards more intelligence, learning, or education than they have as being pretentious, elitist, and not to be trusted. And many are prepared to disparage what they don't understand, or deliberately misinterpret arguments and data to suit their own purposes or re-inforce their own self-esteem.
And experts, intellectuals, and the educated are definitely not to be trusted. From Mao-Zedong and Pol Pot, right through to Michael Gove and the Donald, populists have derided learning and expertise. But should he ever get a brain tumour, I bet Gove plumps for an expert to deal with it, even if he has been decrying the expertise of doctors in diagnosing the problems with the NHS.
(BTW this isn't limited to Anglo-Saxon cultures. We see it in miniature even in cultures that are significantly more intellectual, like France. Hence Le Pen.)
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Date: 8/1/17 18:42 (UTC)Or maybe they are hoping the wealth which they will have accumulated from all of these corporate donors will keep their grandchildren alive and well at the expense of poorer grandchildren from less well-heeled grandparents.
Either case seems pretty damn short-sighted. But it isn't as if our elected officials are as clever or educated as the average civil servant: if they were, they couldn't appeal to the voters.
I mean it sometimes seems that almost everyone regards more intelligence, learning, or education than they have as being pretentious, elitist, and not to be trusted. And many are prepared to disparage what they don't understand, or deliberately misinterpret arguments and data to suit their own purposes or re-inforce their own self-esteem.
And experts, intellectuals, and the educated are definitely not to be trusted. From Mao-Zedong and Pol Pot, right through to Michael Gove and the Donald, populists have derided learning and expertise. But should he ever get a brain tumour, I bet Gove plumps for an expert to deal with it, even if he has been decrying the expertise of doctors in diagnosing the problems with the NHS.
(BTW this isn't limited to Anglo-Saxon cultures. We see it in miniature even in cultures that are significantly more intellectual, like France. Hence Le Pen.)