For me, the most memorable moment of last night’s debate was Rick Perry’s comparison of himself to Galileo — because Perry refuses to accept the science of climate change. The cynical deceptiveness of this comment is mind-boggling.

Galileo fought for years to defend the scientific theory of heliocentrism, and the people who harassed, persecuted, and eventually convicted him of “heresy” were exactly Rick Perry’s type: religious fanatics, acting out of fear, hatred, and blind ignorance.

Perry didn’t come up with this dumb inverted reality talking point on his own, of course; creationists frequently use the Galileo comparison too, when trying to cast themselves as the persecuted truth-seekers they are not. As a creationist, Rick Perry has certainly heard these arguments before, and so have the right wingers who cheered for his idiotic comments; this is straight from the far right’s anti-science playbook.