The Republican Brain: The Science Of Why They Deny Science--and Reality (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
I think I wanted to like this book more than I did. It may seem satisfying to believe that liberals are on the side of science and rationality. I'm a lefty scientist. It sounds good to me. Really though, liberals can be pretty quick to turn on science when it doesn't line up with their preconceived ideas and biases. I've seen lefties get just as hostile toward the science behind genetic engineering as the right wing do toward climate change. I don't think any of us can really claim the high ground here.On a more nitpicky note, there were a distracting number of typos, grammatical errors, and sentence fragments. According to the acknowledgments, the editor of this book was Eric Nelson of Wiley. Mr Nelson, spelling and grammar exist for a reason. Please, learn more about them. In this book Chris Mooney backs up his assertion that Republicans/conservatives think differently than Democrats/liberals with a deluge of data from scientific tests and psychological studies. At times it was very slow going for me, not that I'm a fast reader to begin with, which is a telling indicator of my political leanings. Two things I wish there'd been more about - or that I hope Chris will cover in a future book: the undecided voter (in this political climate how does anyone remain undecided?), and how can you be sure that Republicans/conservatives are not simply faster readers?
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