The Origins And Dangers Of Right- Wing "Anti-Knowledge"

Here's a good read this morning over at Washington Monthly:  Nancy LeTourneau talks about the origins and dangers of the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party's embrace of anti- knowledge (stemming from right- wing Christian fundamentalism) bolstered by 

... the tendency of conservative media to attract viewers/listeners by appealing to their feelings about what must be true rather than the facts. When facts intrude on our “garage logic” it makes us uncomfortable because it creates what we call cognitive dissonance. We are comforted by the alternative of simply blaming the elites and rejecting the facts.

That’s why I’d suggest that the root cause of an attraction to anti-knowledge was the creation of Fox News. What Murdoch managed to do with that network was to pose the proposition that facts were merely the liberal media at work. So on one side of the “debate” you have the conservative garage logic and on the other you have liberal facts. The rest of the media - in an attempt to prove they weren’t liberal - accepted this frame, giving credence to anti-knowledge as a legitimate position. That traps us into things like having to argue over whether the science of human’s contribution to climate change is real because denialism is given credence as the opposing conservative view.

This instinctual reaction to any challenge to right- wing shibboleths and mythic candidates is most recently illustrated by the wagon- circling going on to protect the fast- dissolving, fluffed up life story of former Fox "News" contributor Dr. Ben "On Meds?" Carson.  Ignore the man behind the curtain!  It's the "liberal media" at work!  Attack!

Now what we're seeing, thanks to the large, chaotic field of sociopaths vying for the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party presidential nomination, is anti- knowledge colliding with anti- knowledge, as different spheres within the right- wing anti- knowledge bubble clash over cherished lies and myths.  We also have a fresh example of that in the right- wing media (see the exchange between Fox "News" hacks noted in the post below).

As LeTourneau says, progressives have the enervating chore of arguing against the right- wing deniers -- of man- made climate change, evolution, observable reality, etc. -- whose outlandish arguments are deemed legitimate simply because the puerile corporate media deems theirs an "opposing view."   Welcome to 19th 21st Century America!

(Image:  Young Republican)