You can Believe in Free Market Economics OR Science. Not Both.

I never would have thought Libertarian “The Marketplace!” types had anything in common with religious Fundamentalists.  But a new study shows that these groups have one thing in common:  Both of these groups reject science — or anything else that contradicts their pre-conceived beliefs.

Come to think of it, when somebody starts getting all dreamy-eyed over The Invisible Hand of the Marketplace, this person could just as easily be talking about Adam and Eve or the Rapture.

Stephan Lewandowsky of the University of Western Australia, who directed this study, said:

“The conspiracist ideation that all of the world’s scientific academies have conspired together to create a hoax known as global warming has found traction in American mainstream politics.”

He also said:

“The pivotal role of personal ideology in the rejection of climate science has been repeatedly demonstrated.  We highlighted the magnitude of this effect among climate-science blog denizens, who have a strong interest in the issue, and we additionally showed that endorsement of the free market also predicted the rejection of two other well-established scientific facts.”

Those other two well-established scientific facts denied by the Free Marketeers:  the fact that smoking tobacco causes lung cancer and the fact that the HIV virus causes AIDS.

Climate change deniers also have a strong tendency to believe the 1969 moon landing was a hoax; just a Hollywood production.

Figures.