Colbert on Jindal: A black mark on Brown University

October 2, 2014 • 7:31 am

by Greg Mayer

On Monday night’s episode of his show, Stephen Colbert sarcastically endorsed Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal in the 2016 presidential race, lauding him as a “down-home guy who’s learned to stop learning.” Jindal is best known for his disastrous 2009 response to Obama’s address to Congress, and his pushing of creationism in Louisiana schools (covered at WEIT here, here, here, here, and here). At a Christian Science Monitor Breakfast in September, a reporter asked Jindal his views on evolution. Jindal obstinately refused to answer, repeatedly stating his support for local control of education, despite that not being any part of the question he was asked. Colbert elaborated on Jindal’s mantra of local control, proposing that on one Galapagos island, finches have longer beaks because they evolved to eat fruit, while on another island, “the beaks were shorter because Jesus”.

Screen shot from the Colbert Report, 30 September 2014.
Screen shot from the Colbert Report, 30 September 2014. Note the short beaks.

(I could not get the video to embed, so click here to see it; evolution part begins about 3:20.)

Jindal began his evasions with what is now becoming a standard line– the “I’m not a scientist” gambit, which paradoxically seems to enable the claimant to be bold and unconstrained in their beliefs, rather than humble. But when Jindal says he’s not a biologist, Colbert points out that Jindal holds an honors degree in biology from Brown University! My friends and colleagues at Brown—which include the indefatigable proponent of science and foe of creationism Ken Miller—have some explaining to do! Ironically, earlier this year Jindal suggested Obama sue Harvard for having failed to educate him properly. But it seems that if anyone has cause to complain of what their education did for them, it’s Jindal. (In fairness to Brown, I must note Michael Shermer’s thesis that smart people (which Jindal believes he is one of) are better at rationalizing away the evidence in order to maintain their preexisting prejudices; so, it might not be Brown’s fault that Jindal either doesn’t really know much, or suppresses his knowledge for the sake of his political career.)

Colbert, however, is quite taken with Jindal’s “impressive retreat from knowledge”, and his efforts to make sure others aren’t “handicapped by knowledge”. And, he points out, “there’s a lot more science he [Jindal] can run away from.”

If Jindal’s public floundering on the question wasn’t enough, Jindal replied to Colbert with a series of inept tweets, filled with non sequiturs, what one supposes are flat attempts at humor, and the claim to be ripping pages out of books, which I think he wants us to think is satirical, but seems perilously close to what we might actually expect him to do. Like a dog returning to its vomit, he plunges, Maru-like, back into the box, becoming yet further entangled. Not to mention all the traffic he’s driving to Colbert’s site.

34 thoughts on “Colbert on Jindal: A black mark on Brown University”

  1. Brilliant – “no one is more popular” and “if hot air rises then why is hell below us”.

    Jindal has been embarrassing himself with his ignorance for many years.

    1. “Jindal has been embarrassing himself with his ignorance for many years.”

      Apparently not in his home state. Reelected several times 😎

      1. That reveals a lot about his home state, which ranks near the bottom for everything.

          2. I don’t know why he never used his first name, As far as I know he was Bobby as a child.

      2. If I correctly recall, Jindal (like Gov. Nikki Hailey of SC), in opposition to national educational standards,employs the fatuous conceit, words-to-the-effect, that the Common Core does not conform to Louisiana (South Carolina) “values,” not infrequently compared to those of, e.g., California or some other putatively liberal state.

        I wonder which state has more admirable, or the most admirable, “values. “It’s “Amuricun Exceptionalism taken to the next level. Most impressive bloviation, taken to almost toxic levels during the spiels ululated by national political convention state delegation speakers just prior to announcing to what presidential candidate they are committing votes.

        (Re voters apparently not sufficiently embarrassed: SC folks can’t seem to get enough of former Gov. and now U.S. Rep. Mark “Argentinian – uh, Ah mean – Appalachian – Trail” Sanford. After that episode he had the chutzpah to ask his estranged wife to again manage a political campaign for him.)

  2. the claim to be ripping pages out of books, which I think he wants us to think is satirical, but seems perilously close to what we might actually expect him to do

    Legislators don’t need to rip out pages, they can have the curriculum or text books changed to reflect their views. Don’t like evolution and you can influence the school board, then kids will never even see the objectionable bits and instead will learn about the “intelligent designer” (wink) after hearing how evolution is a theory in trouble.

    If there were ripped out pages, that might be better. There would be a conspicuous void which curious children could investigate. Instead the text books seamlessly integrate science with nonsense.

    One key to good satire is that readers don’t say “that’s not a bad idea, in fact it sounds like an improvement to what is happening today.”

    1. I’m trying, but I can’t think of a clearer display of Dunning-Kruger obliviousness than a pride-wounded politician defensively attempting twitty banter with a world-class satirist.

  4. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver are comedians yet they are doing some of the best journalism and opinionism today, certainly the best on television. It’s the Jesters who can be safe I guess speaking truth to power; the king never listens.

    1. That does seem to be true, and it is very strange and sad for our news agencies. I have only been watching John Oliver lately (I am busy) and I gotta say he is brilliant. Just last week he blew open a pretty juicy scandal about the ‘millions of dollars of scholarships’ given away through the Miss America pageant.

    2. A great deal of what they do is critique the news media itself. Self-criticism is something the media seems utterly incapable of at the moment. So they definitely fill a need.

      The other thing they due to the “real media” refuses to do is call the ridiculous people and institutions ridiculous.

    3. They are all good. I prefer Stuart for his news coverage, Colbert for his humor, and don’t catch Oliver that much because I’m typically not up that late.

      Maybe with this exchange, Colbert should start a “Better know a State” sketch, where he interviews Governors the way he currently interviews House representatives.

      1. ” . . . the way he currently interviews House representatives.”

        He needs to interview Rep. John “I Don’t Have To Let Her [Kathleen Sebelius] Answer!” Shimkus of IL, and let him cast before us swine his pearls of wisdom on how to congenially and respectfully talk to the wimminfolk.

  5. “Jindal began his evasions with what is now becoming a standard line– the “I’m not a scientist” gambit, which paradoxically seems to enable the claimant to be bold and unconstrained in their beliefs, rather than humble.”

    It would also seem to admit that the speaker who claims not to be a scientists lacks expertise on a certain issue, expertise which scientists have! So which is it? Are scientists just propaganda machines for the godless left or do they know what they’re talking about?

    People like Jindal talk out of both sides of their mouth. In fact, two sides isn’t nearly enough for the unthinking, irrational inconsistency you see so often.

    2. I think it’s more pernicious than simple evasion. It’s quite revealing in the clip that Jindal does not say “I’m not a scientist”, but instead “I don’t have a degree in evolutionary biology”. Since evolutionary theory is the foundation of modern biology, and Jindal has an honors degree in Biology from an elite University (Brown) – his answer was therefore equivalent to a Chemistry graduate pretending to have no knowledge of atomic theory because he doesn’t have a degree in “nuclear chemistry”.

      The man is a liar – he knows perfectly well what he’s doing – riding this destructive “no nothing” Conservative gig for as long as he can hang on. Unfortunately no one in that room had the background to ask him why he wasted his time at Brown University – or suggest maybe he should tear up his degree.

      1. The fact that he even knows the term “evolutionary biology”, tells you he’s a wanton liar (prostitute?). Most politicians would say, “I ain’t no scienteeeest”, and you might be right if you guessed they had no idea what evolution meant.

  6. Jindal is just a caricature of the entire Republican candidate species and we can only hope it will soon be endangered.

    1. It could have been a PR person. They can be as lame as their bosses. You can find loads of examples of stupid political aides, PR people, political advertisers all with bone-headed ideas. A good PR person would have told him to say nothing.

  9. In fairness to Kan Miller, it is my information that he never had Jindal in a course.

    1. Even if he had, it’d not be Miller’s fault. People determined to believe nonsense will find away.

      Creationists slip through biology programs in major universities from time to time. Unavoidable. I know my place (public univ.) gave a PhD in plant physiology to one c. 15 years ago. A major private university nearby awarded a PhD even more recently. I know/knew both these students.

      As long as the student’s research is solid and the he/she knows enough to pass their quals, what can you do? This isn’t like some bible college or Baptist “university” where you have to swear allegiance to Jesus and biblical infallibility to even enter the program.

      1. Duane Gish and Jonathan Wells, PhDs from UC Berkeley. Kurt Wise, PhD from Harvard. Marcus Ross, PhD from Un. of Rhode Island. Jason Lisle, PhD from Un. of Colorado. Bill Dumbski, PhD from Un. of Chicago. Michael Behe, PhD from Un of Pennsylvania. Scott Minnich, PhD from Iowa State Un.

        Just goes to show that a doctorate is no guarantee of immunity from belief in bull s*it.

        1. From Wikipedia:

          “Jindal studied for a Bachelor of Science in biology and public policy at Brown University from 1988 to 1991 . . . Master of Letters in political science from New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar . . . appointed Jindal Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals . . . in 1999 he was appointed President of the University of Louisiana System.”

          Verily, (is my math right?) at age TWENTY-EIGHT, head of the U of LA university system.

          “Political Science”: human herd management.

          Yeah, getting bachelors in Political Science and/or Policy (or if a Romneyesque character an MBA/JD) apparently qualifies one to do anything and competently hold forth on any topic.

  10. “My kids tell me they’re learning about Charles Darwin in school…”

    Oh, I wonder if they are reading that famous La. school textbook and he was the one riding the Loch Ness monster’s back?

  11. I guess it’s hard to make jokes but still not let your constituents know for sure what you think about something. Making a rebuttal is hard when one does not wish to rebut coherently. Points for trying I guess.

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