If you are still wondering how someone like Donald Trump can get traction in an election – or the role of science denial in degrading public discourse, or the link between climate deniers and racist conspiracy theories, here’s more food for thought.
Above, video from the Heartland Climate denial conference in 2012 shows how climate deniers have made common cause with young earth creationists to destroy the teaching of science and critical thought in American schools.
Below, the fresh new face of climate denial in Texas.
A woman who believes in the New World Order conspiracy theory and that President Obama worked as a gay prostitute could soon win a seat on the Texas state Board of Education, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Mary Lou Bruner fell just 2 points short of gaining the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off. Bruner, who claims to be a retired teacher who holds a Masters in special education, believes sex education materials “stimulate” children to experiment with sex and that the United Nations has a plan to wipe out two-thirds of the world population.
According to the Chronicle, Bruner has deleted most of her Facebook posts with questionable content — but not before Gawker and others could collect screen shots of them. Many can be viewed via a simple image search in Google.
“Obama has a soft spot for homosexuals because of the years he spent as a male prostitute in his twenties,” Bruner wrote in October. “That is how he paid for his drugs.”
Bruner also believes climate change is a conspiratorial hoax.
Bruner has stated that:
- “School shootings started after the schools started teaching evolution.”
- “Many of the (sexual education) books which teachers read to your small children are not allowed in jails and prisons because of the bad effect the books have on the prisoners. These books stimulate children to experiment with sex.”
- “The Democrat Party had JFK killed because the socialists and Communists in the party did not want a conservative president.”
- “It is a goal of United Nations’ Agenda 21 and the One World Order to reduce the population of the world by 2/3.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLX2jjg4kWs
Mary Lou Bruner on climate change:
Just think about how much money the government has wasted educating the people about the government hoax which officials first called “Global Warming”. Government later changed the term to “Climate Change” because government lies or predictions did not come true, and the people were becoming very suspicious because the world wasn’t getting warmer. It was much easier to call the hoax “Climate Change” because with the new name, corrupt government officials and scientists could say every hurricane, tornado, flood, drought, snow storm, earthquake, tsunami, blizzard, and EVERYTHING that happened was caused by “Climate Change”. And a few people still believe them.
Mary Lou Bruner on dinosaurs:
When the flood waters subsided and rushed to the oceans there was no vegetation on the earth because the earth had been covered with water. It took a while for grass and trees to grow back and the big plant-eating dinosaurs needed lots of vegetation to live. The dinosaurs on the ark may have been babies and not able to reproduce. It might make sense to take the small dinosaurs onto the ark instead of the ones bigger than a bus. After the flood, the few remaining Behemoths and Leviathans may have become extinct because there was not enough vegetation on earth for them to survive to reproductive age. Most of the dinosaur fossils which scientists have found are permanently preserved in positions of great distress as if they were trying to keep their heads above water or above the mud.
Mary Lou Bruner on school shootings:
… The school shootings started after government removed the Ten Commandments and the Bible from public school buildings, and disallowed prayer at school and school events. The school shootings started after the schools started teaching evolution is an absolute fact and the classes cannot talk about weaknesses in the Theory of Evolution. The shootings started after the schools started teaching the Constitution of the USA is a flawed document written by selfish aristocrats who were only looking out for their own wealth, The school shootings started after the government started teaching children to feel sorry for themselves if they do not have as much as other children in the school….
I have tried to understand the psychology of some folks in denial by searching the web to talk to some of the more ardent anti views in Yahoo, other blogs, etc. It is not a favorable testament to the human condition, but I have seen a sizable chunk of these folks that have similar views to this woman, to varying degrees. It would seem to corroborate the research from not to long ago finding a correlation between conspiratorial thinking and climate denial. There is a distinct thread of fear for their survival running through these folks. Yes, energy extraction and use is a means by which we humans in the 1st world have come to become successful at surviving comfortably throughout our natural lives. They seem to take any potential changes to the energy order of things very personally.
My engineering opinion is that we could work out the technical, conservation, and policy issues to change how we humans do things while avoiding modifying our planet too much further. The real problem appears to be the psychological, whether we can choose to make the changes required to do so, which would corroborate the report Peter cited I think a month ago.
This woman is not the exception, but what seems to be an expression of a sizable faction in denial.
That’s right. Saving us from catastrophic climate change isn’t an engineering problem, it’s a political one.
and a psychological one, and… and…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Wow, this is so very sad. Unfortunately not that rare. Seems that the Repubs have been courting this type of distorted, disjointed, fact-free type of thinking and are now reaping the whirlwind. They are now reaping what they have sowed for many years. We can ONLY hope that the disaster they fear of Trump sinking many other Repubs in the General election will come true. If not, we are all in for a long period of hurt. The hope is that after a disaster for the Repubs (and this would be the bright side) that more rational elements can regain the reins of a once great party.
Reblogged this on A Green Road Daily News.
What’s the difference between Mary Lou Bruner and an Islamist leader? Bin Laden wanted US to work against climate change.
Taught HS science for 7+ years back in the 60’s and then spent 23 years in school administration. Had to deal with bible thumpers and similar ideological kooks on occasion over that entire time in both roles. They have always been with us, but they had little impact back then because they were always a minority and did NOT represent the thinking of a major political party as they do now.
Since the Repugnants have veered off into La-La land on the far right, the impact of the kooks is no longer limited to small backwaters in the reddest states. ALEC, the home-schooling movement, the evangelicals, and corporations like K-12 have spread their tentacles deep into the educational system, even in states that had been more progressive. States like TX whose voters have given us Cruz and Gohmert and Lamer Smith are most in danger of being taken over by looney-tunes like Bruner.
I am appalled that a woman as bat-shit crazy as this might be elected to a position of leadership in education, but I guess the party of Palin and Bachmann can be expected to continue to repeat its disasters until it collapses and sanity prevails.
PS Bat-Shit Crazy Bruner is also in gross violation of the U.S. Flag Code with that American Flag jacket she’s wearing in the photo. She probably doesn’t understand that any better than she does dinosaurs.
Evolution of the human species have not come far enough – its still at the level of people being caught in the monkey trap all the time.
Also as social creatures we have a serious need for identification and through that becomes very short sighted to the consequences of our actions, and is basically capable of all sorts of crazy stuff. I mean there are people strapping bombs on themselves and blowing themselves up convinced that there is an afterlife based on some religious conviction. When people are willing to believe in things that only exist through imagination the possibilities of irrational behaviour is endless.
The woman must be brain washed to think that and poorly educated herself. Here you are Mary Lou a bookmark just for you.
And here is a book that will fill in all those gaps in your mind about the geological-ecological history of the Earth: Cassell’s Atlas of Evolution. I would like to see an updated edition of this excellent book which has a handy geological time spiral in the introductory pages. I have reworked this spiral and added an Eon — Epoch tree diagram which I could link to in another post if there is interest.
Such a nutty woman has a chance of getting elected because the ilk of idiots who would elect her actually turn out and vote. In high numbers.