To be fair, it seem that Mr. Moto is considering Kennedy to be a prominent “liberal” person, so this is why he is using him as an example. Really though, Mr. Moto needs to show that the Anti-Vax opinions of Kennedy move beyond a personal level and extend to party policy. Are there any examples of bills sponsored, or official speeches given by Kennedy that support an Anti-vax viewpoint?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr has never held elective office. Liberals haven’t voted for him. How could he give official speeches that reflect any party policy or platform? How could he sponsor any bills? How does he represent liberals other than by presumably being one himself?
Except that the only thing I was saying was that there were some people who had that characteristic who felt that way. They were cited in that piece in the Atlantic and they are personified in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
And since all I was saying in my first post is that people worldwide believe absurd things from time to time, this didn’t seem to be the most controversial thing to assert. I wasn’t saying that most liberals in Berkeley or Boulder were anti-vax, just that the sentiment was a little thicker on the ground there.
And that is so - it was enough to inspire the Atlantic article, it is borne out by data on the ground there. At no time have I asserted that this made up a majority or plurality view in the liberal community. That clearly isn’t so.
But it is just as clear that the view is present to some degree.
You can see in my post that I don’t feel this is terribly important wherever it happens - it just happens. You are insisting on evidence I am simply not interested in looking up. It is enough for me that some liberals believe what they do just as some conservatives believe what they do. And note, that isn’t to excuse those beliefs. I’m not interested in doing that, though you seem to be leaping through hoops to prove that liberals can’t possibly have an incorrect thought.
Content yourself that you’ve won, if you must. It sure seems to be important to you.
Lobo, I am very informed. If you simply opened your mind and thought about things instead of spouting liberal talking points, you would have known that by now.
Conservatives don’t deny evolution. Religious whackjobs do. They are not conservative by any stretch of the non-liberal imagination. They are the Cousin Lennys and they do NOT speak for the majority.
That name jumped out at me- Mike Castle of Delaware was defeated in his primary, so unless someone’s had a change of heart, every Republican Senate candidate now disputes evolution.
OK, so we have your assertion that BrainGlutton and HappyLenderveder self-identify as socialists, devoid of a cite, and then you conflate “extremely liberal” and “socialist”. What do you think socialism is? I mean that as an honest question, not as a swipe; are you using the word “socialist” as a synonym for “extremely liberal”?
What? When has this place ever been anything but solidly left-of-center? You’re acting like this is something new around here.
Mr. Moto, you get a fail for trying to apply ideology to the anti-vax position. I can only speak anecdotally, but the vast majority of those who skipped vaccination for their children in this county were right wing conservatives–of the fundamentalist Christian brand. They don’t trust the government, nor do they believe that government has a right to force vaccinations. Does this sound like a liberal position? Didn’t think so either. I’ve run into this not only in California, but Virginia, North Carolina, and Nebraska (again, this is anecdotal).
It’s absolutely horrifying to see the mixture of willful ignorance and risks that people are willing to take to believe a lie. I’ve had people tell me to my face that the HPV vaccine has killed hundreds of girls after being administered. When I asked them where they got the information, they said it came from their friends and right-wing Christian media. When I questioned that maybe they were wrong, and that maybe they should check more mainstream new sources or even talked to their doctor… bascially, they didn’t want to hear it. They knew they were right.
Apparently so - a very high number indeed, especially when compared with results from other countries. I believe that evolution-denial numbers are the second highest in the USA, right behind Turkey.
That is why you’d never catch me saying anything like: “All Democrats accept evolution as fact.”
So when I read a blanket statement like “Conservatives don’t deny evolution”, I will post evidence to the contrary.
From here (scroll to the very bottom of the page):
These numbers are from a 2007 Gallup poll. They are, frankly, hideously embarrassing across the spectrum, and a reflection of the dreadful science education in this country. But 68% of self-identified Republicans don’t believe in evolution. That’s a hell of a lot more than your random crazy uncles.
Catholics do no accept the theory of evolution even though they say they do. Why? Because evolution is a purposeless process. Humans did not have to come into existence. If the earth was still conducive to big-ass lizards, then right now there would be no humans and a bunch of big-ass lizards. So, believing in evolution within the framework of Christianity just makes no sense whaÞsoever.
What they really believe is that god chose to create humans using a slow process of small changes over time. That belief jives with all of the evidence for evolution, but it’s not evolution.
Now, now. I’m sure he hits the conservative message boards heavily, telling such people that they are not conservative and that they are not welcome on those boards.
Here is what I believe - that the universe and the earth are both billions of years old, that in the last few million years life appeared on this planet and that it has taken many forms since then.
Nothing in that, to my mind, precludes the existence of God.
