Nicholas Wapshott, Reuters: The GOP's age of unreason

[highplainsdem]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/11/us-wapshott-gop-idUSBRE99A0Q820131011

Hard-right Republicans' rejection of basic economics is just the latest example of how they have abandoned rational thought and refuse to accept established scientific facts. Consider their arguments against evolution.

Not long ago, Republicans were hardheaded realists who derided the woolly pipe dreams of their Democratic rivals. Now they appear to have lost all touch with reality, embracing notions that used to be the preserve of paranoid eccentrics who write rambling letters in green ink.

While we live in the Age of Obama, they are living in the Age of Unreason.

-snip-

Which part of democracy do they not understand? They lost. The president won. They should stop pretending that the last five years never happened.

A small but significant number, however, are insisting that unless Obamacare is defunded, delayed or repealed now they will not pass a budget nor a debt ceiling increase. They assert that the economic consequences - which all those with knowledge of finance, business and economics say will be disastrous - may even be good for America. These deniers have reduced the public discourse to a farce by declaring that up is down and vice versa.

There is a term in psychology known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. "People tend to be blissfully unaware of their own incompetence," David Dunning and Justin Kruger wrote, "… Their lack of skill deprives them not only of the ability to produce correct responses, but also of the expertise necessary to surmise that they are not producing them."

In other words, some people are too stupid to know how stupid they are.