http://www.facebook.com/neilde...os/10155195888806613/

See you fellahs on Saturday at the Science March.


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Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a rock star.

Science makes you chill.

Brevard March for Science

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Ugh.. that was hard to watch.

Its depressing that we as a society have gotten to a point where NDT even needs to make a video like that.


But I suppose our work is never done..

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When America was "great"

He was downright militant when he spoke in Orlando last November after the election.

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Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

"I think my primary message would be learn to appreciate evidence."

The most common tricks politicians use to muddle inconvenient science

"Thousands will demonstrate on Saturday in the name of evidence-based decision-making"

-------------------------
"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Sean Illing
I get that this isn't a partisan book, but you really go out of your way to avoid the obvious conclusion, which is that this is overwhelmingly a Republican problem. It's not exclusive to Republicans, but the vast majority of examples you cite come from Republicans. Why not acknowledge that?

Dave Levitan
The point of the book is more the rhetorical techniques rather than the why behind it. I wanted to be able to provide a tool for seeing through political speech even though right now this is largely a Republican problem.
I'm also trying to be somewhat charitable. Science is tough and people do misunderstand the details, so it's hard to call it all lies. While I totally acknowledge that it might be frustrating, I'd say it might be a little more useful to just try to see what they're actually doing, rather than try to understand why they're doing it.

Sean Illing
Can you cite an example of a prominent Democrat playing rhetorical games with science?

Dave Levitan
It's tough. The Democrats do appear in the book a few times, but their errors tend to be very minor and subtle and not generally deceptive. It's tough to find an example of left-wing politicians flatly lying about science. I think GMOs is probably the only one and I can't think of a specific statement off the top of my head, but there have certainly been Democrats who get the science on that very wrong.
I don't claim in the book that is exclusively a Republican problem, but it's damn close.


-------------------------
"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

I've known some Dems who were anti-vaxers, but I think most of them are coming around after seeing measles outbreaks in the news.

-------------------------
Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".