Republicans, Claiming Rigged Solar System, Target 'PHT'
Republicans, Claiming Rigged Solar System, Target 'PHT'
"No Polish eccentric can dictate to us the nature of God's universe."
Copycat bills are expected to be introduced this week in Michigan, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Alabama and Oklahoma to prohibit the teaching of so-called “PHT,” or Polish Helio Theory, in public schools.
The bills, almost verbatim versions of model legislation drafted by the American Family Association and recently championed by the far-right GOP Freedom Caucus in Congress, are attempting to undercut what Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called “the steady indoctrination of youngsters in a view of the heavens contrary to God’s design.”
In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Patrick said the Republican bill is an answer “to those on the left who would denigrate God’s green earth. First they say ‘we’re dying, we’re dying.’ Now they lump us in with Uranus. It’s time we quit apologizing and proudly proclaim Earth First.”
Meanwhile, in a podcast interview with longtime Trump associate Steve Bannon, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann said, “For 600 years, woke elites have drummed into the heads of our pupils that the earth revolves around the sun. Why should children be made to feel ashamed of their planet? It is time for this to stop.”
Fann has set aside taxpayer funds for an audit of the state’s textbooks, which she claims “are riddled with anti-Earth propaganda.”
Science has recognized a sun-centric model of the solar system since the 1543 publication of On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres by Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. But Fann and her Republican co-sponsors claim to have evidence that “Big Astronomy has rigged the scientific record.”
In Florida, with the support of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, State Rep. Joe Hardin is expected to introduce the anti-science bill under the name “Don’t Say Ray Act.”
“Maybe the radical left wants to worship the sun,” Hardin said in a press release. “Maybe George Soros has no respect for Earth, but Florida values and good common sense tell us that no Polish eccentric can dictate to us the nature of God’s universe. What’s next? Praying to a kielbasa?”