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September 22, 2013

It appears that Rabbi John Rosove is excluding liberals like himself from the category of people influenced by recent scientific findings.

In his latest blog post, titled “Republican Craziness and Hubris Explained,” the rabbi refers to two recent columns which quote new scientific studies that show “partisanship undermining reasoning skills.”

As the rabbi writes:

“If the researchers are correct, then the more real facts, information and logic that bonafide experts in various fields (e.g. economics, health care, science, climate change, etc.) present, the more convinced will be the extremist ideologues and their followers of whatever nonsense they started out with in the first place, and they will stick to what Stephen Colbert once called ‘Truthiness!’”

So far, so good.

But here comes the hitch: Even though the study applied to ALL humans –liberals included– the rabbi writes that the study explains REPUBLICAN behavior:

“We now have brain science to explain the bizarre and destructive impulses and positions taken by the Republican Party and their irrational and extremist base vis a vis The Affordable Care Act, the United States budget and the US debt ceiling.”

Does he make any mention whatsoever that this new brain science may also explain the stubborn, ideological behavior of NON-Republicans?

Nada.

In other words, he is ignoring a new fact from “bonafide experts” and sticking to his ideological guns.

Sound familiar?

Unwittingly, the rabbi has confirmed the very finding of the study: That real facts don’t influence ideologues, whether they're liberals or Republicans.

In the good news department, this just shows we’re all humans.

Chag sameach.

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