Some Things You Got Right While You Were Left

Kathy Shaidle writes about 8 Things she wishes she'd known when she was a leftist.

And for the most part, it's a solid piece.  But then, near the end, I noticed this paragraph:

Today we also know that Sacco & Vanzetti were guilty, as were the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss. There really were Communist agents in the State Department. Rachel Carson made stuff up. The Kennedys were jerks. Hollywood lied about the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. Many of the most iconic images and “facts” about the Vietnam War have been twisted beyond recognition.

(My italics.)

While I agree with most of those points, I was interested to see how, exactly, Hollywood had lied about the Scopes trial.  I had no particular reason to doubt that there were distortions in Inherit the Wind, so I followed the link to see what was said.

What was said was an abjectly dishonest apology for creationist claptrap.  When you see phrases like:

the purported evidence for evolution

you know you're not in for an honest debate about Hollywood's representation of a historic trial.

They pass of straightforward falsehoods like:

Indeed, the case for evolution remains far from satisfying standards of verifiable science.

With equally straightforward misrepresentations and ad hominems:

This is evident in the current vociferous debate between two of evolution’s most outstanding high priests, Stephen J. Gould and Richard Dawkins.

That current vociferous debate was about rates of evolutionary change on the local scale and the contigent nature of evolution.  Which is to say, there is no doubt at all that evolution happened; rather, there were questions about the reconstruction of the process on short timescales.

The Scopes Trial took place more than 70 years ago. Nevertheless its legacy continues to be felt in the series of legal battles currently being fought in courts across the USA.

Fought by the creationists, and lost, because what they are attempting to do is replace science education in public schools with their religious beliefs, and that is not just an affront to every right-thinking individual, but actually against the First Amendment.

Sorry, Kathy, on this one point you were right the first time, back when you were left.

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