Brainwashing. That’s the reason Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma gives when asked why his granddaughter questioned his lack of understanding regarding climate change.
Quite a hoot from the guy who has taken more than $2 million from the PACs of oil, gas, and coal operators during his career in Congress. These donors include Koch Industries and Exxon, leading shapers of the sinister campaign to brainwash Americans into thinking that global warming is a fabrication and smearing climatologists who have for decades been raising the alarm.
Inhofe is notorious for his incessant claims that climate change isn’t merely bad science but a full-bore hoax. In 2012, his book was published on the subject: The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. (Don’t bother reading, it’s not worth your time even for laughs.)
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Last week, Inhofe told radio host Eric MeTaxas about a conversation he had with one of his unnamed granddaughters, Right Wing Watch reported Tuesday:
You know, our kids are being brainwashed? I never forget because I was the first one back in 2002 to tell the truth about the global warming stuff and all of that. And my own granddaughter came home one day and said “Popi (see “I” is for Inhofe, so it’s Momi and Popi, ok?), Popi, why is it you don’t understand global warming?” I did some checking and Eric, the stuff that they teach our kids nowadays, you have to un-brainwash them when they get out.
Ryan Koronowski at ThinkProgress notes that teachers, business representatives, and rank-and-file citizens developed the Oklahoma Academic Skills for Science two years ago. Although the legislature passed these standards, significant opposition was raised against these. Some of thise came from state lawmakers who didn’t like OASS guidelines on teaching kids about climate change, particularly because the Next Generation Science Standards—national guidelines for science education—had guided the setting of the Oklahoma standards.
Since January 2015, thanks to the outcome of the 2014 midterm elections, Inhofe has chaired the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, having taken over from California Sen. Barbara Boxer. His first speech after assuming the chairmanship: climate change is a hoax.
It’s easy to laugh at Inhofe and his snowball and other antics. It would be easy to conclude that it’s him, not his granddaughter, who has been brainwashed. But I don’t think so.
As I wrote two years ago:
But—gimme a wink here, Senator—you know that human-caused global warming is for real. You know its consequences are going to be devastating and that that word won't half describe the ongoing results unless a broad range of actions are taken and quickly. You know this because if you didn't know it after all your experience, you'd have to be stupid. And we all know that you can't be stupid and get to be a United States senator. Right?