So the anti-science bill went through and passed in the Tennessee state legislature, and now the Governor of Tennessee (Bill Haslam) has announced that he's basically sure to sign it into law. Though there is pressure from people who have functioning brains to urge him to veto, it's not really all that likely that he would, or even that it will end there. And thus will end science in Tennessee public schools. It's almost that the same state that held the infamous Scopes Trial should also come full circle and now bring creationism and religious horseshit back into the schools.
I'm sure it's easy to make light of the situation since it doesn't cover a whole lot, but that's exactly the reason why it's so subversive. Much as with SOPA which had very little detail and very vague language -- which in turn made it open to be a lot more dangerous and destructive than was probably designed. The other thing is that the opportunity to let creationism or anti-vaccine or climate change denialism into the science classroom is there, but it's only really a risk if there is a significant population in the state who would actually lean that way. If this same law was passed in... say, Japan, it would probably not even raise a blip... because anti-science thinking isn't that strong a movement in Japan.
But this is Tennessee... a "Red" state... I don't think I need to finish that sentence for people to see that there's a problem.
I'm sure it's easy to make light of the situation since it doesn't cover a whole lot, but that's exactly the reason why it's so subversive. Much as with SOPA which had very little detail and very vague language -- which in turn made it open to be a lot more dangerous and destructive than was probably designed. The other thing is that the opportunity to let creationism or anti-vaccine or climate change denialism into the science classroom is there, but it's only really a risk if there is a significant population in the state who would actually lean that way. If this same law was passed in... say, Japan, it would probably not even raise a blip... because anti-science thinking isn't that strong a movement in Japan.
But this is Tennessee... a "Red" state... I don't think I need to finish that sentence for people to see that there's a problem.
