Generally speaking, the news of someone getting elected to be the Speaker of the House in any country does not even deserve a byline in international news. It's not like the Speaker does not have power or influence but it's mostly a procedural post that is far below in the hierarchy that it is probably at the bottom of the front page news even in the native country.
But if you pay attention to the most recent speaker of the US Congress then one will be left with philosophizing pointlessly since it is excruciatingly hard to wrap head around the choice the Republican party made in choosing the man they choose.
There is so much to unpack here. However, we will let go of internal party squabbling and posturing. That's too internal matter to discuss. The country of the US is the most technologically advanced nation on the face of earth and dare I say, in the known history of mankind. The industrial, mechanical, and technological advancement this country has achieved in less than a hundred years is so astonishing that it will be another hundred years before mankind can start appreciating it. Industrialization and mechanization have brought unprecedented economic progress and comfort to every home, hitherto unknown to the civilization. The technology like the internet or personal computing industry, they built has, at least for now, positively impacted the world in general. And yet, the speaker of the Congress that one of the only two main political parties in US politics decides to elect is fervently anti-science. He does not believe in evolution or climate change. He does not believe Dinosaurs existed or that the Earth is millions of years old. The man believes that Earth was created 6000 years ago by a person, who he calls, God! He did not believe in COVID-19 and certainly not in the vaccine. The man questioning the reality so hard even Saturday Night Live won't be able to develop any caricature of him. The situation is dark when reality writes itself as satire. I am not even getting into his denying the results of the 2020 Presidential Election. That can be rationalized as political posturing. But who in a sane mind questions the evolution or questions the existence of dinosaurs?
The insane mind only and the hoards of them have reached the seat of power.
The obvious question for the non-US world is, why should anyone care? There are enough numbnuts politicians across the world. Each country has a buffoon passing themselves off as civilized. We don't care about them, do we? The case is not the same when it comes to US and US politics. The US is still the sole superpower in the world. What they do and think matters and impacts the rest of the world. They are the biggest polluters in the world. So if the Speaker of the Congressional House denies climate change then any possibility of the country working towards reducing carbon footprints drops drastically. Modern science is one of the greatest discoveries of mankind that has changed our world drastically. So, if the Speaker of the congressional house denies dinosaurs, or denies evolution, it will impact the spending on Science, which in turn will impact scientific progress. Moreover, we should not see him as a singular entity that has reached the position of power. This is not about a frozen potato reaching the highest echelon of political power. This dude is what part of US society saw fit to elect and propose. He is a reflection of large swaths of the country's society. The fact that so many people share his beliefs, his lack of faith in science and should worry all of us.
The worst is there is nothing we can do about this development. We all get to suffer though! Some solace.
