title:  Conservatives Can’t Believe Canadian PM Would Understand Science, Accuse Him Of Faking It
text: Canada s new liberal Prime Minister went viral after he deftly answered a question on the importance of quantum computing to a room full of reporters. For many, the ease with which he broke down the science was a testament to his intellect, his curiosity, and his interests in promoting science and technology. Unfortunately, for conservatives, any display of scientific literacy is immediately viewed as either elitism or fraud.Conservative writer J.J. McCullough went with the latter.In a piece on his blog breathlessly titled  The North Koreanification of Canadian political reporting,  he floated the idea that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau s answer was a con job meant to make him look smart. Moreover, he accused the media of helping the prime minister stage  the quantum computing incident like propagandists out of North Korea.In the reporting that followed, the Canadian media deliberately and pointedly did not place Trudeau s verbal essay on quantum computing in the context in which it occurred. They instead chose to present the story in a fashion that would ensure maximum PR benefit to the prime minister   namely, this idea that Trudeau confidently called the bluff of a patronizing reporter.To put it another way, the Canadian media has actually reversed the realities of the story 180 degrees. What is being falsely presented as a story of a scrappy prime minister resisting a hostile press is actually a story of a slavishly subservient press who are actively shaping their reporting to suit the government s needs.This would all be completely eyeroll inducing if not for the fact that professional media contrarian sites like Gawker   usually so good at holding the spewers of nonsense accountable   instead quickly grabbed the narrative and ran with it. In writer J.K. Trotter s own breathlessly titled piece ( Justin Trudeau s Quantum Computing Explanation Was Likely Staged for Publicity ), he concurs that Trudeau s display of rudimentary understanding of quantum computing is impossible to explain if it weren t a vast media conspiracy.Somehow, we ve gotten to place where an interest in science and technology and a willingness to unabashedly share a love for it are considered negative character traits. We ve crossed an intellectual Rubicon and on the other shore aggressively ignorant anti-intellectuals like Ted Cruz are waiting for us with open arms. It s true that under a President Cruz, we would certainly never have to worry about having him explain quantum computing (or evolution, or climate change, or renewable energy), but is that supposed to be a good thing?It s worth noting that Trudeau s office vehemently denies the fact that the prime minister set up anything. The reporter who posed the original question to Trudeau also contacted Gawker to essentially tell them to screw off. If this is a conspiracy, it s an incredibly subtle one.But let s apply Occam s razor for a moment. Instead of a  North Koreanification  of the press, perhaps Trudeau s excitement in learning something new about a cutting-edge field of technology allowed him to understand and explain the science behind it. Perhaps he approached the researchers with legitimate questions and listened to their answers with legitimate interests. Perhaps what we saw during that interview was exactly what it looked like. Perhaps that s the kind of progressive values that led millions of Canadian citizens to vote for Justin Trudeau instead of his conservative counterpart in the first place.And perhaps we should applaud his effort, rather than demonize him just because other politicians have led us to believe science is scary and dangerous.Watch Trudeau explain quantum computing and confuse conservatives below:Featured image via YouTube screengrab