  Thu, 2011-11-10 05:23Chris Mooney Chris Mooney's picture
This would be sad, if it weren’t also so telling.   So much for
that!  Beginning with Roger Pielke, Jr. (not technically a
conservative, but, well…), and then spreading to climate
"skeptic" blogs like Watts Up With That and Marc Morano’s
Climate Depot, conservatives are claiming that the book is a
form of “new eugenics” and that it describes them as
“genetically/mentally/psychologically inferior,” and so on.
If this is not committing the "same dumb mistake," it is
definitely pretty close.   I won’t do any more to defend a book
that isn’t even out yet, except to say two things: 1) It is
based on solid science from psychology, political science, and
other fields; 2) the sort of behavior we’re seeing here—jumping
to conclusions based on heuristics ("judging a book by its
cover"), misrepresenting opponents' views based on no
evidence…well, it turns out that these are precisely the kinds
of things I’m criticizing. For a tiny taste, see this study,