« 'War of Fleas' | Main | Spank your child ... go to jail [updated] »
January 18, 2007
Political science
...not the science of politics, but politics masquerading as science.
One good example is the term "anti-semitism"; a word coined in the late 1800's in Germany by Wilhelm Marr, a political aggitator, building on the pseudo-scientific theories on "race" popular in Europe at the time. "Anti-semitism" sounded so much more rational than Jew-hatred.
Certainly in the United States there are all manner of political groups -- supremacists and separatists, who attempt to appeal to a pseudo-scientific explanation for why the objects of their contempt are deserving of such contempt. IE "Negroes are shiftless and immoral" "Whites are ice people, cold and cruel."
It is disheartening that even today, whole groups of people can be dismissed as being lesser beings because the accusers have a political axe to grind. The accusers don't find their political opponents mistaken, but mentally ill.
Fortunately, integrity steps up to challenge such hate-filled "accepted wisdom."
(h/t Michelle Malkin)
Posted by Darleen at January 18, 2007 01:20 PM