One of the easiest ways of knowing you are talking to an idiot – no matter in what context – is if they fall into anecdotal evidence as the basis of their argument. Most often they do this with premises like "everybody I know" or "here in Poughkeepsie" to arrive at some universal (usually wrong) conclusion. And if when they turn on the AM radio or watch Fox News which reinforces the same ignorant tripe, they get that warm fuzzy feeling of redemption for never getting their GED.
For after all, chances are "everyone they know" may very well be from the Nutcake Rest Home, the Tea Party sign making shop or doing time in Folsom.
As the cast of the Daily Show so well explains, this is especially the case when it comes to Climate Change.
Hey just a couple years ago all the smart people in the world got together do deal with this very problem. Realizing that really stupid are not able to get past their anecdotal arguments regarding the thermometer outside their back door, they changed the term from "global warming" to "climate change". Little good that did hey? The morons just flat out refuse to use the new term.
There is a big ugly red elephant in the room of American politics. We have a political party dedicated to amassing and increasing great wealth for the few (who already have it) while they stick it to everyone else through the use of slogans concerning God, guns, elitists, communism, race, and above all fear. Simply put, they know how to generate a seething hatred directed at not only smart people, but science as well. And boy has it ever worked! Our two smartest presidents Carter and Obama are vilified while our two dumbest presidents, Reagan and W Bush are deified. It is amazing… The United States of Duh.
And please do not tell me that the RNC does not know that their Republican Base is dumber than mud. They know damn well uneducated stupid people are their only hope of holding power. Give them invisible sky creatures watching over them, a couple big guns to shoot each other and the constant refrain that smart people are their enemy and the world is theirs.
That is why they make sure to keep such settled upon known nitwits like Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Dan Inofe, Michelle Bachmann and Kit Bond out front. They know what they are doing.