As COVID surges, disinformation against safety measures and vaccines is proving resilient and costly. Political analyst Chai Komanduri says today's playbook against vaccines draws on a long-running GOP war on science. "Climate change denial is a conspiracy theory. It is a belief that the world’s scientific community is lying to you and a group of fossil fuel executives with little scientific training are telling you the truth,” Komanduri says, noting it is thus "a short leap to believe the world’s medical community is lying to you about vaccines.” Komanduri joined MSNBC’s Ari Melber along with former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford to discuss this as part of a longer report on the roots of the war on science. (This interview is from MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber, a news show covering politics, law and culture airing nightly at 6pm ET on MSNBC. ).
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Science and facts: They don’t serve a political agenda. Well then, time to manufacture conspiracy theories on a daily basis… Surely that’ll make America great again.
@Rick M. You being the simpleton
@Lex Ruptor you are an ignorant child. I’m sorry that your parents didn’t play a more instrumental role in your life to tell you not to involve yourself in adult conversations. The media is the mouthpiece for the government. You do not know what you are saying. You truly have no clue child
@The Study Quote : “@Lex Ruptor you are an ignorant child.”
The usual scheme : Don´t speak about the topic, but attack the messenger.
Imho, your point is what ? The government earns billions fighting against CO2 emissions, while the fossil fuel industry is so human – friendly with their non-profit work to let the status-quo economy go with the never ending ressource of raw oil, or what?
@The Study fake news, well done
@wolfgang simons do you think government or the multibillion dollar corporations that own them care about the environment? …..or do you think the 1% has figured out how to capitalize off of “going green”? The virtue signaling climate cult needs to hold nations like China accountable. Buying into carbon tax as the solution only helps make the wealthy control the peasants more. But by all means keep promoting battery powered cars that plunder the earth and plugging them into the coal powered energy stations. The absolute hypocrisy and ignorance in boundless.
note: FORMER Governor, where are the voices of reason in the current GOP? Well said Chai.
Ya as a fiscal conservative it’s really depressing that across the entire country I can only name about a dozen Republican’s I’d like to see stay in office. The republican party of today (and if we look at this critically, the last 16 years or so) has decided to become a party that ignores problems instead of proposing policy solutions.
Yes “blanket = warm” is as simple as 1 billion years of self-evolving biological nanotechnology.
Except climate change denial is backed by serious fossil fuel money. Sanford is little better than a Trumpist.
It’s very simple. This planet can do without humanity. Humanity can’t do without the planet. So what is more important to protect?
@AuntButton it’s still about so much more than some people who haven’t realized that they are not alone on this planet. Some day the we all are in the same boat.
And there are countless other people outside of the United states that are even more undereducated in this matter.
@Lars Borch Uneducated is much different than knowingly opposing the science on climate change.
@mikereardonbass true, but we will be forced to work together sooner or later. It’s really not a option, because we are still in it everyone.
Power and money! ‘They’ seem to think those will suffice.
“Neanderthal as it relates to science”…uh, the myth of Neanderthals being brutish, unthinking evolutionary dead ends has been out of favor in the scientific community since at least the 90’s (btw, great new book on just how interesting these cousins of ours were: “Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art” by Rebecca Wragg Sykes). You can tell he’s another GOP’er who doesn’t know much, or care much, about science.
Even a little earlier, when they found the remains of a near adult with what appeared to be spina bifida, which means show one had to care for.that individuals needs
What about “Republican as it relates to science”?
@Stefan Jakubowski Actually, that trait happens with some animals. It’s not just a human thing. That said, these days the knuckle draggers are the Republicans.
Don’t ask Republicans if they believe in climate change, ask them if they understand it.
@Gail Coleman So do you deny that the Earth warming causes CO2 to be released from the ocean?
Even with complete Lefty lockdown CO2 emissions dropped 5%, what more tyranny do u propose?
@You can’t handle the truth Ah, no. Thats not what I said about the ocean. The ocean releases oxygen AND CO2, and the VERY destructive gas, methane. Hydrates trapped in the ocean floor are bubbling out, and methane has a shorter life but is FAR more destructive in its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere, which causes further warming. Self reinforcing feedback loops. My point was that it makes no sense to me to look at ONE source of the earth’s heating and say nothing can be done, then call people a “doomsday cult” when we “get it”. Are we doomed? Maybe. Does the “belief” we are doomed and beyond hope help us or our children? No, so I refuse to say it’s all over IF people have the willingness to learn and to CHANGE. That ignorance is ultimately what is destroying us.
@You can’t handle the truth again, you are missing the point burning of sequestered carbon sources increases Co2 into the system
@Gail Coleman I wonder if he can’t handle the truth, it is like he doesn’t get it, or is he purposely being…..dense
@You can’t handle the truth lefty tyranny
How much sequestered carbon has been released from coal, oil etc, since the industrial revolution
Where does that previously sequestered material go,
Right wingers believe in magic, does harry potter remove it
All conspiracy theories use the same playbook, most religions do as well.
What about the bs, disinformation fox news is trumpeting
@Jaak Savat It’s largely religion and conspiracy theories, much politically motivated. Fox is merely a particular medium.
Where this playbook really started was with the tobacco companies decades ago. It may even predate that.
Reefer madness 1936
“There are more stupid people than geniuses, so maybe we should let stupid people teach science and determine our future.” – Republican logic
“The underclass suffers but doesn’t learn from it.” -Noam Chomsky.
I always thought that Trumpy would have been a Flat Earther if there were votes in it.
GOP will never let science get in the way of Big Money entering their pockets
People with low capacity of empathy – and driven by greed – is the very foundation of the right wing, and their very selective beliefs and denials.
I immediately began researching the neurological differences between liberals and conservatives.
Sanford still refuses to admit what the party he USED to be a part of now is.
When an individual will sell their beliefs for power they shouldn’t be trusted with anything
“Believe”?! You don’t need to believe in science you absolute fool
Asking someone, “Do you _believe_ in science?” is like asking, “Do you believe in plumbing?”
The question is more “Do you accept science?”
Believe without evidence is for bible thumpers, called “faith”.
Science is based on FACTS and evidence.
There needs to be a high school course on how all science fields function. How science builds upon itself, how scientists seek answers to questions, how the studies are done within defined parameters, then how they are peer-reviewed and published. I provided a link to a covidiot recently from a bona fide study that showed viruses can alter genes but vaccines don’t (unless its a live virus, in which case maybe). She rejected it because was a study linked on a government website. She had no understanding whatsoever the study actually existed separate from government. I was floored this basic understanding whooshed over her head.
The only science Republicans believe in, comes straight from the wallet
Sanford just can’t admit it – his party is in complete shambles.
They sure chose the hospital over their church when they got deadly sick with the virus .