Al Gore fends off more questions on Current TV sale to ‘oil’ group, blames biology for our politics
On Wednesday, during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Al Gore argued that “human nature” plays a role in shaping political leanings, sounding the alarm for eugenic fearmongering. Gore also fended off more questions about selling Current TV to Al Jazeera, who is funded by oil money.
First up Gore takes on the differences between the two political spectrums, crediting our biology.
photo Steve Jurvetson
“I think, first of all, scientists now know that there is, in human nature, a divide between what we sometimes call ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’,” Gore said. “And it gives an advantage, you can speculate, to the human species to have some people who are temperamentally inclined to try to change the future, experiment with new things, and others who are temperamentally inclined to say, ‘Wait a minute, not too fast, let’s make sure we don’t do anything rash here.’”
Some folks are racing to defend the former VP.
“He’s absolutely right that there are differences in temperament [between liberals and conservatives], and science has been able to shed some light on that,” Professor John Hibbing of the University of Nebraska, an expert on the relationship between biology and political orientation, said in an interview with POLITICO.
Hibbing said that there’s little evidence that political views are predetermined or genetic and didn’t think Gore was going that far in his comments.
“A lot of people maybe make the mistake of assuming that anytime you talk about [political] predisposition, that has to be genetic, but a lot of what’s in biology is not genetic,” he said, adding that biological and psychological patterns have emerged that distinguish conservatives from liberals, especially in how strongly they react to perceived threats.
“We notice liberals and conservatives tend to have fairly different physiological reactions to stimuli,” Hibbing said.
Politico quoted other experts to agree.
Next up was more questions from “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski for selling his company to a network funded by oil.
“Well, I see it differently. I understand the criticism, of course, but Al Jazeera has long since established itself as a really high-quality news-gathering network. And I think the addition of Al Jazeera to the U.S. media landscape will be a big net plus. And by the way, their climate coverage is far more extensive and high quality compared to any other network in the U.S.”
A similar quote was dropped during Gore’s interview with Matt Lauer.
