Chock Full O' Assumptions

I got a big chuckle out of this particular piece out of the LA Times today. Joel Stein must love being fisked.....

Nobody likes science. You can tell by the fact that they teach it in school. There aren't any high school courses in pizza, pot smoking or car chases.

I don't like science either. I mean, it sounds good when you're a kid with the fingerprint kits and the baking- powder volcanoes, but by 10th grade, you realize it's just math with special effects.

OK he is right here....I like science, but I will admit he has a point about the whole "math with special effects" comment. Now if I could just sell the Junior Logician on that....

But for some reason, only conservatives get blamed for hating science. Which is weird, because conservatives are, by definition, the ones who are supposed to hate strange new things. They hate foreigners, video games, rap and -- from what I could gather from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's speech Tuesday -- talking to adults.

People on the far right don't believe in evolution, global warming or doing stem cell research. Most of their opposition is rooted in the fact that these ideas challenge the Bible, which is the oldest book they know. I'm guessing Greek conservatives are OK with killing your dad and making love to your mom.

ER WRONG ANSWER....Conservatives don't hate foreigners - we dislike people whose first act coming into our country is to break the law. We love foreigners who come here legally and we go out of our way to try to HELP them come here legally. We don't hate video games either - I know a lot of conservative gamers. We don't disbelieve evolution, but we do NOT believe that man came from apes - that is not what Darwin's theory was and yet that is what is taught AS Darwin's theory. We don't disbelieve in global warming - we just don't think that the MMGW proponents have proven that mankind has anything to do with it. We don't disbelieve in stem cell research - we believe in the research that is being done on on adult, umbilical cord and basal T stem cells has proven to be more reliable than anything done on embryos.

But since I moved to L.A., I've discovered that liberals hate science just as much as conservatives, and they talk about it a lot more....
Liberals have an irrational fear of inoculation and genetically engineered food, no matter how conclusive the science is on these topics. They believe that the body needs to be detoxified with foot pads, colonics, mud wraps and maple-syrup-and-cayenne-pepper fasts. They take echinacea and Emergen-C, heal themselves with crystals and magnets, and believe that energy flows through different "centers" of their bodies. They practice, I swear, a form of healing massage called reiki in which the masseuse usually doesn't even touch you. I believe my wife and I have a reiki marriage.

They suspect modern medicine is part of a corporate conspiracy, while dangerous recreational drugs are OK because they come from stuff that grows in the ground, man. These are people who will feel virtuous about drinking Kool-Aid as long as the bottle has the words "vitamin water" on it.

I've been in rooms where a normal discussion of organic versus local food suddenly turned into an engineering analysis of how the Twin Towers could no way have fallen just because two giant jets hit them. That's the part of the conversation when I suggest we run an experiment in which we see what happens when two giant jets hit the two idiots talking.

I would not call anyone's fear of genetically modified food "irrational" at all because there is good reason to be concerned. While I agree that "detoxing" the body is not half bad, I would prefer to do it by cutting out all of those prefabbed foods and drinks etc...I (and many others I know) take herbal suppliments like Echinacea. I could go on...

This column is full of all of the stereotypes that I thought we were supposed to avoid in order to engage in "meaningful" dialog. Actually these are the stereotypes that I prefer to avoid as they simply do not allow for meaningful dialog at all - they only serve to polarize.

We have to get beyond the stereotypes and demonization of each other if we are ever going to come together to fix the problems that are facing this country. Mr. Stein, in his haste to place a "pox on both your houses" has actually done more harm than good with this column. Then again, we are starting to come to expect that from him.

What are your favorite stereotypes and how would you debunk them? I'd love to hear from you.....