Paul Krugman has been writing lately about what he calls "zombie ideas." Climate change denial is a zombie idea. So is pandemic denial. Both are zombie cousins. Both are rooted in disdain for expertise. Krugman writes:
When you have a political movement almost entirely built around assertions that any expert can tell you are false, you have to cultivate an attitude of disdain toward expertise, one that spills over into everything. Once you dismiss people who look at evidence on the effects of tax cuts and the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, you’re already primed to dismiss people who look at evidence on disease transmission.
This also helps explain the centrality of science-hating religious conservatives to modern conservatism, which has played an important role in Trump’s failure to respond.
Those who deny both climate change and the pandemic also fear the halo effect of government action:
Conservatives do hold one true belief: namely, that there is a kind of halo effect around successful government policies. If public intervention can be effective in one area, they fear — probably rightly — that voters might look more favorably on government intervention in other areas. In principle, public health measures to limit the spread of coronavirus needn’t have much implication for the future of social programs like Medicaid. In practice, the first tends to increase support for the second.
Modern conservatives have zeroed in on who and what they consider are their most powerful enemies -- experts and government. They've done this on the climate change file. And they're doing it during the coronavirus pandemic.
Image: theenemy.com.br
