Paul Krugman poses the question, and answers it...
and somehow resists saying in so many words, "Because today's conservatives are a bunch of bass-ackwards morons who don't want to bother learning any actual facts or trouble themselves with new ideas... and want the rest of us to be stupid too." Or rather, he says it much more tactfully than I.
Then there's this gem:
Consider the statements of Dennis Baxley, a Florida legislator who has sponsored a bill that - like similar bills introduced in almost a dozen states - would give students who think that their conservative views aren't respected the right to sue their professors. Mr. Baxley says that he is taking on "leftists" struggling against "mainstream society," professors who act as "dictators" and turn the classroom into a "totalitarian niche." His prime example of academic totalitarianism? When professors say that evolution is a fact.
Hmm! Maybe it's all just a brilliant, sinister plot to make liberals
think tort reform is a good idea!
