Truth

Ariel Dorfman has an essay in NYRB which says what a lot of people are saying, but says it particularly well. Here ' s a key paragraph:There has always been a disturbing strand of anti-intellectualism in American life —the very title of Richard Hofstadter’s 1963 book—but never has an occupant of the White House exhibited such a toxic mix of ignorance and mendacity, such lack of intellectual curiosity and disregard for rigorous analysis (despite his untested boast that his IQ is “one of the highest,” certainly higher than Obama’s and a host of other worthies’). “The experts are terrible,” Donald Trump said during his campaign. “Look at the mess we’re in with all these experts that we have.” It is hardly surprising, then, that his administration is over-stocked with know-nothin g fundamentalists. Across the board, he has appointed amateurs who are hostile to science and sport obscurantism as a badge of honor. Accordingly, the policies they have adopted are as stultifying as they are noxious.The noxiousness takes two basic forms. One is the suppression of inquiry and the entombment of truth. Although congress hasn ' t gone along with all of the administration ' s proposals, they wanted to drastically cut funding for the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and other key government scientific resources. They have forbidden government scientists from speaking publicly and attending conferences (just today three EPA scientists were barr...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs