Not a Smart ALEC

As an interested observer of the US Empire/Plutocracy, who tends to alternate between morbid fascination and abject horror, I was  suitably shocked by Joe Romm’s coverage of the American Legislative Exchange Council here. This year it seems that ALEC are pushing forwards with bills to promote the teaching of climate change denial in the public school system.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) - known by its critics as a “corporate bill mill” – has hit the ground running in 2013, pushing “models bills” mandating the teaching of climate change denial in public school systems.

 

January hasn’t even ended, yet ALEC has already planted its ”Environmental Literacy Improvement Act“ - which mandates a “balanced” teaching of climate science in K-12 classrooms - in the state legislatures of Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona so far this year.

Ah yes, the joy of the balanced curriculum. Is this the false balance that promotes all perspectives as equal, no matter what the justificatory and evidential weight behind them? Can one expect a nice Flat Earth narrative to balance out those annoying Spherical Earth stories, so beloved of globalization theorists, one world government types and tree-hugging ecologists? Can one expect some good old Moon landing denial to create some balance to that flag planting, technological triumphalism in the history books? Unsurprisingly, no - once again, if you follow the money, it seems that some people might actually have an economic interest in certain ideas being promoted rather than others. Who would have guessed?

 

Anyway, in a similar vein, here is a good recent takedown of Moon landing denialism, with some useful commentary on similar types of denialism at the end.