Half a nation of ignorant, cowardly savages

[elfs]

There's something intensely sad about how FoxNation, TownHall, and the five most prominent "Evangelical News" sites (according to Google) have absolutely zero to say about the Mars landing. Nothing on their front pages, nothing recent in their search boxes.

An unbelievably impressive feat of human engineering, done by Americans, backed with the Rooseveltian slogan "Dare Mighty Things," and yet... they don't care.

Comments

[ben-raccoon.livejournal.com]

Small people, small minds, and small worlds.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

A very astute observation.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

sad and petty people :(

[woggie.livejournal.com]

I suspect they're sort of afraid of things like this, as science has the ability to do repeatable stunts like this and they don't.

Some time back I was reading an op-ed about how people had turned away from science and back to religion because science hasn't done any stunts that impacted the common consciousness recently.

Well, this is a stunt, and people not in the field of tech or astronomy are talking about it. If they try to demonize the act, they'll be exposed as the hate-engorged Troglodytes they are, but if they ignore it for long enough, maybe they're hoping the science world will just go back to sleep again.

[tagryn]

Except, Fox News did cover it:
http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/search?q=mars&submit=Search
The rest are either political or religious specialty sites. Getting upset about them not covering current news makes as much sense as getting outraged that Popular Science doesn't have the latest religious news from Canterbury, Mecca, or the Vatican: its outside their area of focus.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Note that I did not say "Fox News." I said "Fox Nation," the "what our audience wants to talk about" section of Fox News.

The audience at Fox does not want to talk about America doing great things.

[tagryn]

Hence my second comment. Fox Nation's a specialty/niche site, not a news site: basically a TMZ clone with more politics. And before we go down the lane of tarring visitors there for being shallow, lets also note that HuffPost has similar entertainment stories in their section for that. The latter is also a much bigger site, hence they can afford to have a section on "Tech" as well as "Sports."

I'd no more get worked up about those sites not doing hard science stories than I would about Entertainment Tonight or Sports Illustrated not doing so. It's outside their site's focus, that's all.

[xengar.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's complianing that the section isn't doing "hard science" science stories, but rather complaining about the fact that people who are otherwise among the first to shout "America, **** yeah!" are utterly silent with regards to an American scientific achievement.

Admittedly, I wouldn't have expected that site to mention it since it isn't a "First!" but I do find it a little disappointing. Not "intensely sad" like Elf, but still sad that there is apparently no one over there who sees this as being more than a waste of money and source for the occasional trophy.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Exactly. When Talking Point Memo puts it on the front page but Fox Nation doesn't (and that's an apt comparison), something is sociopathically wrong with the Right's ability to deal with science, technology, and triumph.

As opposed to blowing shit up.