mr. welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour students at the university of virginia are standing up for workers' rights what are

they fighting for now the chosen to express their beliefs also do you think increased knowledge would make an individual more understanding of science you would be wrong at least regarding a certain group in our society and insides of daily take while some conservatives may be nauseated by the separation of church and state how is it an essential pillar of our democracy. in the most of the roads that is workers across america are underpaid and overworked according to a study by the national center for children in poverty an average two parent family in a moderate cost city spends nearly seven hundred dollars a month in utilities for the seven hundred dollars a month on food and in additional two hundred dollars a month that health insurance at sixteen hundred dollars a just utilities food and health care as a result each parent needs to be making twenty dollars an hour in order to just get

by unfortunately most parents and workers in america earn far less than this which makes it very hard to provide for a family and to survive employees at the university of virginia are no different they are drastic. under paid with the moon minimum wage of just over ten dollars an hour in attempts to improve the working conditions of university employees eighteen students at the university have embarked on hunger strike as part of the living wage campaign at that school joining me now to discuss the hunger strike and the living wage campaign at the university of virginia is hunter link a recent graduate of the university and participate participant in the living wage campaigns congress tricorder welcome thanks for having me on thanks for joining us to go on today's day ten day ten just water water and juice water juice that's that's that's rigorous. how long you plan on going. you know it kind of all depends on how because she actions with the administration

goes we met with the president this morning. no movement and we have another meeting tomorrow so we're really hoping. that something something happens you know how much the president makes the president of our university makes about just over five hundred thousand dollars a year. but he's not willing to cough up or he had no she's not. that's that's amazing one of the what are the chief demands of the of the of your group and of the university and and how did the living wage campaign started at uva so well chief demands there's three core demands the first is a living wage that is indexed the cost of living in charlottesville there's been campaigns in the past have gotten raises but over time as inflation cost of living rises those are soon not living wages so we're demanding that wages are indexed to the cost of living in charlottesville secondly we are asking that the university

enforce a standard of contract parity for some of the companies that it contracts with because though many employees are employed directly by the university. hundreds if not thousands of employees are hired through private contractors and the practices for how contract employees are paid are they can be paid as little as federal minimum wage no benefits there are you know god knows how they're treated because they're legally invisible to the university and lastly. we've used the economic policy institute. to calculate that a living wage in charlottesville is about thirteen dollars an hour with benefits on top of that so those are our three core demands and there really wouldn't be a living wage surviving without yet as bare minimum surviving in charlottesville you know why do you think the university so reluctant to pay their employees decently well a lot of it has. to do with political will political climate. virginia is

a conservative state and a lot of the people who are making budget decisions it's not just the president there's also a group called the board of visitors which comes a couple times a year to make decisions and all those are appointed by the governor and as we know government isn't appointing any lefty's to the board of visitors and any school in doubt he's even appointed any moderate yeah so it's kind of an uphill battle if you listen to rush limbaugh for seven hours a day you're on something like that how do you see this playing out you know. this morning when we met with the president it was a little discouraging to see how how little they were going to budge but i was in the room but people who were in the room said that there was death there definitely feeling pressure and there definitely feeling it and if we can just keep it up for a little longer maybe we can push it to get something something for the working and working people of charlottesville hopefully we've just added to the pressure. on

our what you're doing thanks so much for having your fine tradition make sure working people earn a living wage making sure isn't just the morally right thing to do in the wealthiest nation on the planet it makes goods economic sense as well more money working people have the more they spend the stimulating our economy and creating more demand and thus more jobs working people are the real job creators people shouldn't have to be starving themselves to raise awareness of this issue it's econ one hundred one. so sometimes you know what you know and sometimes you know what you don't know and sometimes is the fires the inner says everything you know is wrong. and you know you think you know if you really are you're right. to say that you're right. you know it's wrong. for hundreds of years there's been the notion that knowledge exists to unite us all well made in the united the minds of some but it doesn't do so much to light the

minds of conservatives if you think that a republican with a college degree would be less likely to deny proven scientific concepts like global warming then everything you know is wrong joining me now is chris mooney science and political journalist and author of three books including his newest out in april the republican brain the science of why they deny science and reality the science of why that chris welcome. to the science of why they deny science. first of all. educated republicans are likely to are more likely more likely than not educated republicans or how you know how does the shakeout get to think about politics is driven by emotion and emotion is what compels us to believe certain things and then if we go and research them and educate ourselves watch fox news we tie certain facts or certain arguments to our emotions and we become harder to persuade i think this happens to some extent with liberals but i think conservatives are really doubling down as they know more they become less

persuadable. even if they know more that contradicts what they think they know i mean if for example somebody who is a conservative who thinks that climate change is just a big conspiracy by academics they go to college they discover that no there's actual science here or creationism or whatever you know. aren't there but they're not influenced by that if you read a global warming denial blog these people are very very intellectually sophisticated they can come up with a counterargument for anything you write but do they ever give any ground that they ever concede a you know you know i know that there are in fact i've been in one of them there are think tanks in this town will boiler rooms where you've got people sit in the computers with a pedia pages up with their editing like crazy and blogs that they're participating in and they're basically just paid ten fifteen twenty bucks an hour to sit there and do that i know that there are make money from home gigs where right wing

foundations pay people to blog so you know what i read these global warming denying blogs are very sophisticated but i'm wondering if it's not just thirty five people who are paid really well by the koch brothers. speaking more broadly though i do a lot of debates with conservatives on the show and on the three hour radio show i do every day and one of the things that it seems to me is going on is that we tend to create a sense of identity where we associate our political worldview with our personal worldview and when you shake somebody as political world view or challenge it they behave they react as if you challenge their self their sense of self is that what's going on in the studies i mean you've done the science in a science right it's politics all about emotion it's about identity it doesn't make rational sense if you look at our politics it's confusing it's people are inconsistent but if you if you see people's identities being very tied up with their beliefs and then you see them getting getting this deep investment and then

running out to argue one challenge then you start to understand things a lot better and i think conservatives do this very differently than liberals i think in services and the research shows it's more of a defensive ideology appeals to people who are sensitive to threat sensitive the challenge of liberalism is exploring going out trying new things and psychologically appeals to people who feel. that way conservatism is more reptilian brain below the limbic brain and progressive liberalism is more frontal cortex well i wouldn't i wouldn't go quite that route that fast there's all kinds of nuance that we have to throw in there and in fact there's a lot of good things about both psychologists both have strengths and weaknesses but there are you know there are there is a really good science on the impact of in utero cortisol exposure that you know the developing fetus is constantly interrogating mom is the world i'm going to be born into dangerous or not and mom responds by by cortisol principally the hormone

associated with stress if mom is experiencing a lot of stress you have more hind brain development and less for brain development if she's not experiencing a lot of stress you have more front for brain development brain development and there are a measurable differences in reaction time in athletic ability in anger in response it's just right there right so could it be that the conservatives are the ones who grew up in a stressful environment and most a lot of the studies that have been done have been done on children of war and things like that but you know where it then becomes multigenerational but we have to put all the pieces of the science together what the study researcher talking about shows is that we've been doing about ideology all wrong we think it's you know people rationally come to their ideas whereas in fact what's happening is something very different we've got research showing psychological difference between liberals and conservatives physiological in the sense of how they respond to images where their eyes go and how much how much their skin conducts and conduct the changes based on what they see we've got studies looking at genetics studies

looking at brain structure. the interior of the cortex and so how does it all fit together there's starting to be some consistent findings there seem to be different strategies towards approaching the world and those impel political views so literally when we say worldview we're talking about world view literally viewing the world differently our experience the world spirits of the world history that's looking like it thanks so much for being with us tonight it's very very inside chris mooney now everything you know about the republican mind is right. coming up in tonight's daily take rick santorum wants to turn the united states into a theocracy i could use a lesson from the puritans to teach in the separation of church and state is essential for years.

we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and didn't tell the truth. i have a confession i am a total get a friend that i love driving hip hop music and for. that he was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the world without you it's a place. you know sometimes you see

a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

crazy a large dictator drama you may remember last week we told you about the academy of motion picture arts and sciences banning actor saussure baron cohen from attending the oscars after he had planned to walk down the red carpet in character as admiral allen in the star of his new movie the dictator well the academy had a change of heart they allowed going to walk the red carpet last night and alerted ensued take a look. i mean all the children at the need to bring my dear friend don't understand this. it was his that i am to come to the all scout is. to be sprinkled over the death capital i know the holly bit is just that in. the day and then to this thing think it is actually

a texan. i don't know how to do it as you can imagine cohen was quickly escorted off the red carpet by security not sure who had the privilege of vacuuming up the ashes but it looks like the dictator got the last laugh here. just. it's clear that out of a very very alex thermos layout really the good. cory who is sick sick a seventeen year old high school student from pennsylvania sent a loud and clear message to the heartland institute a conservative organization planning to create a nation of global warming deniers by reeducating are you who sit directly addressed heartland c.e.o. joseph passed in a petition letter sponsored by al gore's climate reality group asking bass to cease and desist his organization's efforts to create student conspiracy theorists who

also took part in a video produced by climate reality directed towards the heartland discussing other fallacies that have been debunked by science in our classrooms take a look. even activities in changing the climate and c o two is higher than its people can't change the weather the ice isn't melting it's just a theory climate models around reliable everybody knows scientists are in it for the money scientists are like altering their data just to get a scientist will say anything you can help the germs be real if you can't see them gravity steps of cigarettes are in effect that the earth to supplant the sun revolves around the earth you can't trust scientists of course it's true i learned in school and of course it's true i learned it in school. it's great to see students like cory the future of our nation standing up to protect education from corporate interests and bad science. arizona congressional candidate frank answer

north at an arizona tea party rally last weekend in ariz told a crowd of about three hundred people that president obama's presidency is very similar to saddam hussein's invasion of kuwait in one thousand. anthon ari was describing his life before politics in which he served in the military during operation desert storm he said that he helped train kuwaitis to liberate their own country after it had been taken from them by saddam hussein and to marry then told the crowd imagine not having your country taken from you and then having to fight to get it back while we're at that point here in this country. i'll make a comment comparing the president of the united states to a brutal dictator would normally be considered astonishing it's nothing new coming from deeper level mr anthony aryans tea party friends learn that this type of vitriol and rhetoric has no place in america. and the very very ugly rick berman viewers the broadcast they have noticed

a peculiar ad during the show an ad attacking the humane society of america claiming that only a small portion of donations made to them actually go to help fund animal shelters take a look. at attention consumer protection alert if you've seen this bad or donate to the humane society of the united states you should know that only one penny of every dollar donated goes to local pet shelters be aware that the american institute of philanthropy gives the humane society of the united states a d rating if you see ads was purchased by the center for consumer freedom a corporate paid front group run by right winger rick berman berman is closely tied to the food industry and has attacked the humane society on many occasions saying they are engaged in a slow but steady push to take away consumer choices by forcing meat eggs and dairy food out of americans reach berman has a long history of spreading misinformation in order to protect the interests of the

food industry whose latest ad is an instant wind ation tax act designed to show the humane society that if they work against the interests of corporate america they will be met with a firestorm of misinformation and negativity that it's very very . to understand rick santorum as a vision for america we have to go back four hundred years in american history to a time when governments were controlled by religious fundamentalists the most well known example is what the pilgrims set up in massachusetts in the seventeenth century we've been taught to believe that the pilgrims of the puritans came to america to practice religious freedom but they were persecuted abroad and found

refuge on the rocks. not quite true what really happened is that the puritans were kicked out of england because they made everyone's life miserable and they took power in britain under the leadership of oliver cromwell they put in place a theocracy in which any sort of pleasure was outlawed they closed theatres they made festivals illegal they banned dancing they declared sex outside of marriage a crime punishable by death kind of like life under the taliban only worse eventually cromwell died putting an end to puritan rule of the british people said never again they actually wanted their king back. spurn in england the puritans came to america to once again set up their own religious police state mostly in massachusetts what followed was a century and a half of brutality and the absolute suppression of any sort of pleasure there were laws against drinking dancing and card playing laws against going to the theatre

listening to certain types of music and reading certain books women were not allowed to wear jewelry or makeup and even the discussion of sexual pleasure was outlawed and those who broke their strict religious laws faced incredible punishment from having their ears cut off to having a whole board in their tongue with a hot iron to immediate execution there was flogging branding and hanging witches were burned at the stake and drowned in his book history of american law historian lawrence freedman described the bloodthirst in puritan run massachusetts writing the side of a man lopped of his ears or slit of his nostrils or with a seared brand or great gash in his forehead or cheek could not affect the stout stomachs that cheerfully and eagerly gathered around the bloody whipping posts and the gallows that was how the puritans treated their own people imagine how they treated those who were like them like the so-called indians as i wrote my book last

hours of ancient sunlight during the peak watt war of sixteen thirty six the first indian war a new england puritan colonists surrounded peak watt villages set them on fire and then shot dead men women and children as they tried to run from the burning that was. one peer of columnist william bradford described the scene from the puritan viewpoint writing it was a fearful sight to see them bus frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenched in the same and when all was the sting consent there of but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice and they the colonists gave praise their up to god who had wrought so wonderfully this is what life was like under theocracy in america it's why ben franklin in seventeen twenty three at the age of seventeen

fled puritan massachusetts to settle in the secular city of philadelphia after a neighbor woman was tortured as a witch and is the reason why our founding fathers built a solid wall of separation between church and state and why that for two hundred thirty years that wall has remained entrenched no matter which party held political office it's a central tenant to america and it's one that rick santorum now wants the bolos listen to what he had to say on sunday i don't believe in an america where the separation of church and state is absolute the idea that that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely an authentic call to the to the objectives and vision of our country that he doesn't believe in the america that's existed for the last two hundred thirty years in america the john f. kennedy our nation's first catholic president described in one thousand nine

hundred sixty i'm going to need an america where the separation of church and have a home where no conflict would have a president. well to be catholic out of whack and no protestant minister what cabinet or home depot i believe in an america that i think you may not have a catholic protestant no if you're waiting for no reason your body think to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public act of it if you're santorum so the j.f.k. is speech disgusted him so much it made him want to grow up that's because santorum believes in the america that existed four hundred years ago in massachusetts when people were having their ears lopped off for thinking impure thoughts or being tortured for public kissing he believes in america the most closely resembles the taliban or saudi theocracy complete with the religious police or contraceptives or

outlawed sex education is a crime and homosexuality is punished where all of these things should have a cigar or anything else no and were just bets going in the trash how about a condom no you can't have that that goes in the trash little for you if you google santorum you'll find this stuff goes in the trash. coke holy cow this has caffeine in it we can't have that but at the trash the last hours of ancient my book you can't have that. talking about this stuff far on look at this you can't have toys no that's wrong that's you to trash you get the. know it's the sick this article six of the constitution of the united states there should be no loot no religious test for anybody to be a member of that in the trash and of course one hundred percent for no you can't have that. all in the trash rick santorum polices that christian religion is the

sole arbiter of morality and that the state and everyone living within it believers and nonbelievers should fall in line under the teachings of the church santorum believes in a government that will tell us what we can believe in who we should pray to and who we can sleep with and when ironically this is the most dangerous form of big government that there is and this is a radical departure from the united states of america that you and i know our history tells us the dangers of theocracy all the blood that was spilled in the name of religious doctrine back in the sixteen hundreds here literally killed millions and in the middle east we're seeing played out what happens when one religious state takes on another religious state and it ain't pretty america is not a place where women are subservient to rigidly just law where children can be executed for cursing at their parents or were pleasure and happiness are outlawed after all thomas jefferson put it the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right of all americans let's keep it that way by placing the idea of god and religion in

our hearts individually and not in our government collectively. that's it for the big picture tonight for more information or to see any segment of the show check out our website at tom arbonne dot com and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there and get active tag your.

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