No one encapsulates the willful stupidity of the Right quite like Tom Tomorrow. Always a nice reminder that there are still SOME sane people left out there, somewhere...

but this captures the essence quite well. The sad thing is that lying with fake controversy does damage real science. Just look at the IDiots at DI.

A very tiny minority on the right actually believes that silly shit about the earth being 6k years old. No one I've ever met or read about believes the earth is flat. It may be fun to make fun of the idiots on the right, but that doesn't make it funny, or clever, or even readable. Congratulations, Dan Perkins. This strip isn't even bad enough to have been "phoned in." It just sucks out loud. We're not going to wrest back control of our country with lameass writing such as this.

Actually, our esteemed leader has said exactly what TT is mocking here - that the 'controversy' of evolution should be taught (i.e. [un]intelligent design), and his Interior Department has mandated that the rangers at the Grand Canyon present the idea that the canyon is less than 6000 years old, and the shop there must carry a book that argues as much. The great un-schooled on the right continue to bloviate about the 'myth' of global warming. The right is not 'above' what TT is mocking - though we might wish that were so.

as the post from St. Fua'd has more than a hint of concern troll about it. Sometimes I wonder if BushCo is really YEC or just playing to the loony base. I guess it doesn't matter since either way they are lying.

St. Fuad does a nice job of displaying precisely the quality mocked in this strip -- a willful certitude as a substitute for facts.

I'm a long-time TMW reader, and a big fan, so I confess some bias. But this week's strip is dead-on in pointing out a process that has corrupted "debate" on tons of fairly simple scientific issues on which the facts and sound science are overwhelmingly on one side -- global warming, stem cells, evolution, etc. -- and is thus essential to acknowledge before we can even begin those debates on a proper footing.

But instead of being sophisticated enough to acknowledge (or perhaps even see) the actual broad subject of TT's parody, all he can do is dismiss what he personally dislikes out of hand, based only on the most facile and half-interested reading. The purpose isn't actual discussion, but the satisfaction of attack and feeling "right." Which is of course exactly what TMW skewers.

I've only started reading the letters attached to TT's cartoons in the last few weeks. I won't be staying long; frankly, they don't add much to the experience. But I do have to say, it's the strip's detractors who seem to "phone it in."

It's held up by 4 giant elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle who swims through space! I read it!

This is not the most recent data, but it did only take a few seconds of googling:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm

Frightening, isn't it?

cmhmd

Dingus. This strip is what's known as a COMIC ANALOGY, you literalist dope.

The belief in a flat earth meant to lampoon the wilful Republican ignorance on issues like Global Warming and Evolution.

Have you never read the comics before, you fucking dimwit?

God, you fucking Con dullards get stupider every frickin' day.

When I read shit as stupid as your post I want to kick the teeth in of the next Republican I see.

Fucking imbeciles. No wonder you morons can't win a war. Total lackwits!

And sadly, true. Let the moronification of America continue....

He's the turd in our swimming pool.

St. F'uad, I've been a fan of your complaints for a while, but your rants seem to be stuck on auto-pilot lately. Don't get me wrong, I'm also a reactionary wingnut who tries to hijack comment threads with knee-jerk complaints, but you're really phoning it in this week. For example :

"A very tiny minority on the right actually believes that silly shit about the earth being 6k years old."

Really? Is that really the best you've got? Because where I live, there are A LOT of people who not only believe in the young Earth theory of creationism, but consider the President to be a one of them. The flat Earth theory is a hyperbolic bit of satire (in case you're unaware, it's a kind of humor), but it perfectly illustrates the legitimate point that ridiculous views are being given unearned attention because those views are shared by a very, very powerful minority of Americans.

If you understood the underlying issues or the fact that humor can be much more complex than simple fart jokes, you might find that this strip was funny, clever, AND readable.

What Tom is describing is much, much closer to reality than even the evolution "debate" portends. Just last week, Rep. Dan Chisum sent a memo to all of his fellow legislators in the Texas House of Representatives that the SUN REVOLVES AROUND THE EARTH. This was the inspiration for Tom's cartoon.

http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2916

Good job.....you always rock.

(and I love the "HAW, HAW!" bit... Nice homage to Jack Chick...)

I think TMW is again funny this week but I have a different take. I find it funny because to me it is really a criticism of the main stream media. You see the public at large believe what they are told by the main stream media. The MSM report science stories that really only have side as if they have two sides. As if they were political stories. As a result public opinion can be manipulated by a few dissenting “scientists” paid by corporations to take the view that better serves short term profit.

This does not just occur with science stories, but with issues of public policy as well. In the effort to achieve “balance” journalists cover the right wing point of view, and the center, never the left.

With the idea of teaching creationism they covered this as a science story when it was really a religion story.

This cartoon as a nice piece of media criticism. It illustrates how the MSM are really the stenographers of the right. No matter how much the right complains about the “liberal” media, it is really just a smoke screen to give credibility to their mouthpieces.