Idiocracy...Right Here in Texas

Idiocracy....I don't know if you've seen the movie or not. It was on Netflix( was), and it is worth a watch....

You can see us going there......Quickly in this state...If not country.

There is a State Rep from Ft. Worth Johnathan Strickland who has come out as the "darling' of the anti-Vaxxer crowd.

He is quoted as saying that 'Vaccines are sorcery." 

And even has gone after the one of the top Texas vaccination scientists on Twitter saying that he was "You are bought and paid for by the biggest special interest in politics. Do our state a favor and mind your own business "

To which Dr Peter Hotez ( the scientist)replied. "  I don't take a dime from the vaccine industry. I develop neglected disease vaccines for the world's poorest people. And as a Texas pediatrician-scientist it is most certainly my business." (Dr Hotez is a professor at Baylor College of Medicine)

Strickland has become a member of the Texas House who votes against almost everything...Even when he is the only member of the Texas House to do so. 

▪ School finance. After his vote against HB3 he tweeted that schools in his district didn’t receive their “fair share” and that the so-called Robin Hood plan “was not permanently addressed.”

▪ Letting active duty military defer property tax payments for 60 days, HB1883.

▪ Helping shore up the retired teachers pension fund,  SB12 “I refuse to act like it’s more than a one time fix,” Stickland tweeted. “Retired teachers deserve a permanent fix to their retirement, not another band-aid. They aren’t political pawns.” ( Yet he has no answer to fix it.....never mind the Texas Legislature took money from the retired teacher fund to pay for a Formula1 Racetrack in Austin)

▪ Requiring school counselors to let students know about college credit available for military service members,  HB 114. 

▪ Extending the life of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission — and allowing beer and wine sales on Sunday mornings and beer-to-go sales from craft breweries,  HB1545. 

▪ Letting Texans vote, through a constitutional amendment, on whether to earmark all sporting goods taxes to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Historical Commission.( Senate resolution 24) In recent decades, less than half of the money collected by this tax actually was used for these parks.

I am wondering about these anti-Vaxx people. Is it okay by them that they or their kids spread illnesses? Are they okay that polio is going to come back....Are they okay if their kid gets polio? Measles is already back. And trust me, it isn't pretty. I had it at age 10 years.

And the comments on Twitter by the people who support not vaccinating their kids....It is like an attack on science. 

Is it because they believe that science is going to effect their religious beliefs that they are now anti-science? If so, what century are we in? The 1500s? 1600s? In Pope Paul V now a historical hero of the Evangelical Christians for his treatment of Galileo? 

Then, there were people who decided to go after the doctor because.....he had gone to college.....

Now, I don't expect everyone to go to college. Not everyone should go to college, but it should be an option, if one wants to go. ( the cost is another matter. I am wondering if there is something sinister behind the college cost/ debts?) 

But what is going on in this country? Why are we now so anti-intellectual? Why is there is movement to make any education something to be avoided? And it is growing.....

Maybe Idiocracy is not fiction?

Perhaps it is going to become the truth?