THIS PIECE, which is a few years old, is valuable as an explanation of “the employment of rhetorical arguments to give the appearance of legitimate debate where there is none, an approach that has the ultimate goal of rejecting a proposition on which a scientific consensus exists.”
My favorite example is the one about “fake experts,” as applied to the issue of climate change:
A number of surveys and petitions have been published online, presenting lengthy numbers of scientists who reject man-made global warming. Close inspection of these lists show very few qualifications in climate science. On the contrary, a survey of climate scientists who actively publish climate research found that over 97 percent agree that human activity is significantly changing global temperature.
The GOP with their far right religious base and fossil fuel fanatics is anti-intellectual and science is a sin. Got Dark Ages?