You just have to watch this thing to believe it:
That’s Republican candidate for Congress in Oregon’s 4th District, Art Robinson, who believes that:
- We should restart above-ground nuclear testing because “a little radiation is a good thing for the human body.”
- He wants to “dissolve radioactive waste in water”, and “sprinkle radiation over our oceans and over America”.
- AIDS is fake, and just a collection of other diseases given the term “AIDS”, and that “AIDS may be little more than a general classification of deaths resulting from exposure to homosexual behavior.”
- Global warming is fake and claims that the number of scientists who agree with him outnumber the amount of scientists who disagree with him (a notion so easily disproven it’s not even worth bothering to shoot down).
Note if you will that he characterizes Ms. Maddow as “incapable of understanding his scientific theories,” thereby implying that Rachel is stupid. Rachel Maddow is of course a Rhodes Scholar who’s been accused of many things, but being stupid is not the first thing that leaps to mind when referring to her. Hot? Yes definitely. Stupid? Uh… NO.
Also observe that one reason why he can’t hear her questions, is that he’s far too busy screaming at her to, “Get off his lawn!” like a crazy person. Apparently, he did not receive the lesson that my mother gave her elementary school children, that “you cannot listen and speak at the same time.” Perhaps if Mr. Robinson would just STFU and listen occasionally, he might understand the world around him a little better.
As for the him “being a good scientist” part…. well I would beg to differ if he believes ANY of the bullet points listed above. But the part about his AIDS beliefs were particularly nauseating.
AIDS has infected 33.2 million people worldwide, and it’s killed over 300,000 children. But in as late as 1995, this goober was arguing what — that their disease was the result of their “homosexual behavior”? Really? Kids who haven’t even hit puberty yet are hitting the gay bars or cruising WEHO for a piece of ass?? SERIOUSLY???
Joking aside, by 1983, Luc Montagnier’s team at the Pasteur Institute in Paris had positively identified the AIDS retrovirus as the cause of AIDS, so for this Robinson douche to still hold the views he held in 1995 is bad enough, but for him to claim there was still a “debate” about the cause of AIDS at that point in history is not just false, it’s patently absurd. And if he was spreading that trash idea by that point, I’d argue it was also scientific misconduct at best, and criminally negligent at worst. Right up there with morons in the Catholic Church who advocate against condom use in Africa — advice which in that region is tantamount to committing genocide.
And furthermore, what idiotic school was allowing this wackjob to teach science at their institution? At Jerry Falwell’s “evolution is just a theory” Liberty University, maybe?
This is the kind of douche upon which global warming deniers hang their hats and say stupid nonsense like, “Alternative views are being ignored in the scientific community!”
Well, YEAH, because those “views” have very little if anything to do with real science, and are spewed by a very small contingent of batshit crazy LOONS, and oil company SHILLS who are paid to LIE.
THUS, the being ignored part…..
And my favorite part about that too is that this guy by his own admission is a “physical scientist” not a climatologist, or a virologist, much less a behavioral scientist, geneticist, or a neurobiologist, so on BOTH the global climate change and AIDS/homosexuality counts, these are NOT HIS SPECIALITIES, and therefore cannot speak as authoritatively as those for whom it is their entire career focus of research.
He seriously needs to just pack up, and go back home. A rest home. Preferably with nice, fluffy, padded rooms. No sharp edges. And he needs to take all the other crazies running for office this year with him. What we need right now are clam, reasonable, RATIONAL individuals who can untangle the massive, complex problems we’re facing.
