Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

To me, one of the most disturbing elements in the rise of the ideological movement calling itself 'conservative' has been their post-modernist attitude about objective reality.

To be blunt, they lie. They make stuff up, they deny the facts, they say anything that they think supports their positions, and ignore everything that contradicts them. They don't care, because they don't respect concepts like 'truth' or 'facts'.

I'm still firmly rooted in a belief in an objective reality, and it is quite disturbing to me to see so many people in positions of power who clearly don't.

I can't help reacting as if it was a form of mental illness. Why, I wonder, are they walking around loose? Can they be trusted to take care of themselves, and not harm others? Are they in treatment? I mean, I know we have a shortage of beds in our psychiatric facilities, but still... someone should do something. These people are crazy. (Perhaps you know the feeling.)

I'm sure many of them are just repeating things that others have told them. But don't they listen? Why are they so accepting? Don't they have enough brains to say "Wait, that doesn't make sense. How is that possible?" How are they comfortable spouting things that sound so obviously bogus?

I've been confronting this emotion again recently following John McCain's proposals about off-shore oil drilling using modern drilling technology.

Republican stalwarts have been rushing to the airwaves to bolster his arguments with talk of how much better the technology is these days, and how we can just put those awful images of oil spills and fouled beaches away.

One case in point is young GOP up-and-comer Bobby Jindal. (Jindal has been mentioned as a possibility for McCain's running mate, which I have to say, would be fine with me. Nothing like picking a 37-year-old running mate to highlight just how old your candidate is.)

Jindal, who as Governor of Louisiana really ought to know better, happily told viewers of FOX News that "one of the great unwritten success stories" was that after Katrina and Rita there were "no major spills."

Think Progress has the video.

There is a reason that success story remains unwritten. It NEVER HAPPENED!!!

A Houston Chronicle review of data from the National Response Center shows that the two storms caused at least 595 spills, incidents that released untold amounts of oil, natural gas and other chemicals into the air, onto land and into the water.

The quantity and cumulative magnitude of the 595 spills, which were spread across four states and struck offshore and inland, rank these two hurricanes among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. Some have even compared the total amount of oil released — estimated at 9 million gallons — to the tragedy of Exxon Valdez.

Even spokesmen for the industry have a closer connection to reality than Governor Jindal:

Representatives of the oil industry say there was no way they could have foreseen or prepared for the environmental mess.

"We don't like to spill oil. Oil that spills is of no value," said Larry Wall, a spokesman for the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association.

"You can build your structures to withstand strong winds, rain and storm surges, but nature can always topple you," Wall said.

This claim that there were no spills from Katrina and Rita feels like a piece of right-wing propaganda that will be repeated over and over in an attempt to fix it in the public's mind. We've seen it before: a shameless repetition by officials who take advantage of the authority granted to their office to anchor a falsehood in the public mind as fact.

The GOP have become specialists in such manipulation. They take advantage of our reaction of "That can't be right, can it?" to retrain the public understanding. In that moment of doubt that comes when we hear an assertion that contradicts what we think we know, they strike. They convince us that maybe we don't know as much about this one particular thing as we thought we did. Maybe, just maybe, this is one of those rare counter-intuitive things in life. The world is a vast and confusing place. Maybe we should believe this person, who seems to be in a position to know. Even if it doesn't make any sense, maybe, since they keep saying it, it's real nonetheless.

An official wouldn't just be saying something so clearly counter-intuitive, so seemingly backwards, if it weren't true, right? (What do I really know about oil drilling? He's from Louisiana, he must know, right? The Emperor wouldn't go out without clothes on ...wait, yes, yes, I can see them now. They are lovely!)

It isn't true. Don't believe it for a second.

Katrina and Rita were environmental disasters. It was worse because they hit in an area where we have huge chemical plants also. A complex mix of toxic chemicals and oil was released from hundreds of spills from on-shore and off-shore facilities alike, and then sprayed over land, cars, and buildings by the storms.

Some success story.

It's bad enough that the GOP is using the price crisis to lobby for relaxation of drilling restrictions they've opposed for decades, when such drilling would have absolutely no effect on current prices. But now they are trying to convince us there would be no risk. What crap.

I haven't heard a bigger fairy story since they said Iraq would be over in a few weeks, pay for itself, and we'd be greeted with flowers. (Insert your own favorite Bushista fairy story here; there have been plenty.)

By the way, how many hurricanes have hit the shores of Florida in that last few years?