Herman Cain with CNN’s Piers Morgan (h/t: Rex Wockner)
On issues from evolution to climate change, the members of the GOP presidential class of 2012 (with one notable exception) have demonstrated a shocking contempt for science, dismissively tossing aside research-tested, reality-based scientific consensus and deciding instead to stick their collective heads in the sand in order to please their increasingly deranged, reactionary base. Concerned people from across the political spectrum, from Jon Huntsman to Paul Krugman, are alarmed by a Republican Party that is, to quote Mr. Krugman, “aggresively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge.”
This certainly holds true where LGBT issues are concerned. The current crop of Republican candidates have practically tripped over themselves in a quest to outdo each other in the homophobia department. Michele Bachmann, who has made opposition to LGBT rights the central pillar of her entire political career, co-owns a clinic that claims, in the face of the overwhelming medical and scientific evidence to the contrary, to be able to “pray away the gay.” Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry are both enthusiastic supporters of the American Family Association, a Southern Poverty Law Center-certified hate group that actively promotes the idea that sexual orientation can be changed. Rick Santorum, whose name will be forever linked with homophobic bigotry thanks to Dan Savage, most recently raised the horrifying specter of gay soldiers showering with other soldiers as a reason to reinstate the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and publicly embraced “ex-gay” propaganda.
The GOP’s current flavor of the month, Herman Cain, has eagerly jumped onto the anti-science, gay-hating bandwagon. Earlier this month, Cain told The View’s Joy Behar that he believes homosexuality is a personal choice and issued a challenge:
“You show me the science that says that it’s not [a choice], and I could be persuaded. Right now it’s my opinion against the opinion of others who feel differently. That’s just a difference of opinion.”
Truth Wins Out, Think Progress, and other groups hit back with the facts: sexual orientation is not a choice and cannot be changed. Ours isn’t an opinion, but scientific fact.
But apparently, to Cain, facts don’t matter — he’d rather cling to his anti-gay bigotry, thank you very much. In an interview last night with CNN’s Piers Morgan, Herman Cain reiterated his Stone-Age, anti-science views on homosexuality: “Although people don’t agree with me, I happen to think that [homosexuality] is a personal choice.” When Morgan told the candidate that his comments were just as ridiculous as a gay person telling Cain that he chose to be black, Cain bristled: “You know that’s not true. I was born black;” he added that race “doesn’t wash off.”
Herman, Herman, Herman. I, along with most LGBT people I know, happen to be a big fan of regular bathing. Trust me: I’ve bathed over 9,700 times in my 26 years and it hasn’t washed off — I’m still gay.
Mr. Cain thinking he’s entitled to an opinion on a matter of scientific fact is quaint at best. When one considers that he’s a member of an oppressed minority group turning around and contributing to the oppression of another minority group, Mr. Cain’s bigotry seems tragic, hypocritical, and profoundly sad. When one remembers that Herman Cain is seeking the office of the Presidency of the United States, it becomes a cause for alarm. His dangerously unscientific views about LGBT people render him unfit for that office.
This is hardly a surprise, as most of the current GOP candidates are bat-s**t crazy hard right religious maniacs.
Religions hate knowledge, as they realise that the more extensive and wide-ranging a person’s knowledge is, the more likely they are to realise that religion is horse-s**t.
They have literally demonised knowledge from day dot, (Lucifer = Bringer of light – another term for light? Illumination, or knowledge (to shine a light on a particular subject)).
Evolution can’t be right, because it contradicts the Bible.
Climate change cannot be true, because surely god would not do that to us?
Paul Krugmann was spot on in his when he said that “Within the G.O.P., willful ignorance has become a litmus test for candidates”.
They want to be seen as stupid.
It all comes down to the old xtian tradition of Knowledge = Evil.
I despair, I really do.
(and may I extend my apologies to those ‘moderate’ christians out there who are actually the most ‘christ-like’ in their attitudes, something which these fundie nutbars are most certainly not)
Mr. Cain said: “You show me the science that says that it’s not [a choice], and I could be persuaded.” There are volumes and volumes of scientific studies, articles, and academic papers on this very subject published in reputable, peer-reviewed journals in multiple languages and countries. A simple Google search will locate the science Mr. Cain speaks of.
However, it does not matter. Like the “Birthers,” no matter how much proof and/or scholarship you show them to debunk their theories, they will still rationalize away the evidence and cling to their outdated beliefs. Like Climate-Change-Deniers, they will find the fringe scientists who manipulate their research to fit their worldview to say that the science is “in dispute.” And like the “Ex-Gay” activists, they will point to the mythical thousands of people who have walked away from the “gay lifestyle” without naming a single name or producing a single individual to support their claims.
This is just sad sad sad. In no other developed nation would people as willfully stupid and ignorant as the current crop of Republican Presidential candidates ever be taken seriously.
This is Cain’s MO. He’s always saying “this is so because it’s so” and no actual facts will convince him otherwise.
If Herman Cain had any honesty his response would be “you show me the polls that say Republican voters believe it’s not [a choice] and I could be persuaded.”
So “we” have to show him the science, he doesn’t have to look around for it. That’s the way it is when one’s mind is closed to one degree or another. Let me know if he ever gets his head out of his a*s. It’s pathetic that none of these politicians/candidates has the courage to even suggest to their “audience” that they have a brain that knows more than the fools that are listening to them.
Peter, thanks for the addendum at the bottom about non-fundamentalist Christians (and other religions). The anti-knowledge you speak of is definitely a part of any fundamentalism, whether religion or politics. So to be fair, the Catholic Church was very much in the vanguard in establishing the university system, the quest for knowledge and empirical observation which evolved into the modern scientific method, and its monks kept the classics of ancient Greece and Rome live in their scriptoriums. Jesuits were/are world renowned for the excellence of their schools and the monk Gregor Mendel was the father of modern genetics research. The Vatican even has an observatory in Arizona (go figure). And despite the craziness of ultra-orthodox Muslims, Islam has a rich history of accomplishment in medicine and science, including the invention of algebra and trigonometry (which was invented so people traveling in the desert would be able to calculate the direction of Mecca for prayer time). And of course, the same types of accomplishments could be listed for practicing Jews, Buddhists, Hindus et. al.
So apparently Cain thinks Kirk Murphy was just being stubborn when he turned out to be gay in spite of his parents attempts to quite literally beat it out of him.
@ Gary (NJ)
Reading back over my post above, it does seem that I was rather rash. Indeed I am at the moment reading an interesting book on dante, and how much he was influenced by christian philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas, and especially how Boethius’ allegorical female figures inspired his use of Beatrice as as the personification of divine grace.
However, the author does stipulate that, like Dante, Thomas Aquinas was viewed with considerable mistrust in the Church during his lifetime, precisely because of his use of such things as Aristotelian principles and Arab mataphysics in his writings.
Concerned people from across the political spectrum, from Jon Huntsman to Paul Krugman, are alarmed by a Republican Party that is, to quote Mr. Krugman, “aggresively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge.”
Alarmed? People are still ALARMED? Alarm is the appropriate response when the bad thing FIRST starts to happen. You know. Back when Reagan was in office. Anyone who is ALARMED today had better be under the age of 10, recently emerged from a three decade coma or new to this planet. Otherwise, join us in mocking and figthing the GOP or shut up.
As for Sperm Cain, is it any wonder the fRighties love him? His “That’s a lie because I say so” crap might be all he needs to get the nomination.
I wish Piers would have asked, “Herman, millions upon millions of gay Americans insist they did not choose to be gay. Are you calling every last one of them liars?” I would have liked to have seen that answer.
Hunger, I was born during the Reagan administration. As an adult I fight anti-LGBT religious extremism (the vast majority of which originates from the GOP side of the political spectrum, for sure), and I’m still shocked by the depths of the bigotry held by right-wing Republicans.
I hope I never lose that sense of outrage and alarm — it’s one of the things that drives me as an activist! :-)
[...] John wrote this morning about Herman Cain’s inexplicable belief that homosexuality is a choice, something that can be washed off on a whim. Indeed, just this morning I woke up and washed the gay right outta of my hair. It was back within thirty minutes, and I’m already back to making musical theater references, but y’know. [...]
Herman Cain would be an EXCELLENT choice for the republican party’s presidential candidate. I’d send him some money but the Koch brothers have already taken care of that!
That was a very interesting interview. I wish more politicians gave open answers to questions without thinking through the consequences of their answers. Unfortunately for Mr. Cain though, the interview just served to highlight that he is not quite ready for the spotlight of a presidential campaign.
[...] –John M. Becker of Truth Wins Out (Oct. 20, 2011) [...]
[...] –John M. Becker οf Certainty Wins Out (Oct. 20, 2011) [...]
[...] So apparently, on Herman Cain’s planet, it’s completely unacceptable to discuss his alleged consensual heterosexual extramarital affairs. However, when it comes to other people’s sexual orientations and the sexual expressions of said orientations, they’re fair game. In fact, Mr. Cain thinks himself such an expert on sexual orientation that he wants people to believe, against ALL evidence, that sexual orientation is a choice. [...]