Lysenkoism and the Bush Administration


A crib sheet for my readers: Lysenkoism referrs to a period in the history of the Soviet Union where "[u]nder Lysenko's guidance, science was guided not by the most likely theories, backed by appropriately controlled experiments, but by the desired ideology. Science was practiced in the service of the State, or more precisely, in the service of ideology. The results were predictable: the steady deterioration of Soviet biology." For more on Soviet Lysenkoism, see the Skeptic's Dictionary.

I like Calpundit using the term "Conservative Lysenkoism". This is an issue that has stuck in my craw for a long time, the administration perverting the scientific inquiry process, publishing the views of any half-wit it could find who would parrot the party line and call himself a scientist. Lord knows, I've blogged about the perversion of Economics that Larry Lindsey, Glenn Hubbard, and now Greg Mankiew have committed in the service of this administration. Calpundit cites the Union of Concerned Scientist report, and lists its major points. This administration just won't listen to the facts when they conflict with it's ideology. That's why it's impossible to have a serious policy debate with these people.

We know there's a problem with global warming. We know the tax cuts wouldn't stimulate the economy that much. We know that abstinence-only sex education programs aren't as effective as those that discuss contraception. Why can't some people come to terms with the facts?

Calpundit:

CONSERVATIVE LYSENKOISM....THE DEFINITIVE REPORT....Chris Mooney emailed me yesterday to draw my attention to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists about how deeply the ideological tentacles of the Bush administration have extended into the process of scientific research in America. I was planning to write about this myself but I wanted to look at the actual report first. Unfortunately, the UCS website was down when I tried to read it. Today it's back up.

Regular readers will know that I've blogged about individual aspects of this in the past, and in a lot of ways it represents one of the most chilling aspects of the Bush administration: they just don't care about facts. They want to do what they want to do regardless of whether it will work or whether it makes sense, and this extends to economic policymaking, war planning, and now even scientific studies. 'Conservative Lysenkoism' is the term I've coined for it.

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