First up is Dumb America from the New York Review of Books blog, written by Gary Wills.
Mr. Wills is pretty forthcoming with his opinions on what he sees as obstructionist thinking. At one point he even describes the southern mentality as if "the whole continent were tipped upward, so that the scattered crazinesses might slide down to the bottom."
Here is what he has to say regarding a disrespect for science:
"No part of the country will suffer the effects of global warming earlier or with more devastation than the South, yet its politicians resist measures to curb carbon emissions and deny the very existence of climate change—sending it to the dungeon with evolution and biblical errancy. One doesn’t need much imagination to see the South with lowered or swollen waters in its rivers and ports, raging kudzu, swarming mosquitos, and record-breaking high temperatures, still telling itself that global-warming talk is just a liberal conspiracy. But it just digs deeper in denial. The South has decided to be defeated and dumb."
As for healthcare and other social issues, he has this to say:
"No one needs better health care more than the South, but it fights it off so long as Obama is offering it, its governors turning down funds for Medicaid. This is a region that rejects sex education, though its rate of teenage pregnancies is double and in places triple that of New England. It fights federal help with education, preferring to inoculate its children against science by denying evolution."
You can read the rest for yourself at the link above.
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