I take it that the British aren’t quite used to the bullying, consensus-through-intimidation tactics of the American Right. We’ve seen the YouTube video in which a climate change denier makes an ass of himself on British television by behaving the way all righties behave while on American television.
Now George Monbiot tells us that the repetitive talking points of the Right are the products of brainwashing.
When I use the term denial industry, I’m referring to those who are paid to say that man-made global warming isn’t happening. The great majority of people who believe this have not been paid: they have been duped. Reading Climate Cover-Up, you keep stumbling across familiar phrases and concepts which you can see every day on the comment threads. The book shows that these memes were planted by PR companies and hired experts. …
…The people who inform me, apparently without irony, that “your article is an ad hominem attack, you four-eyed, big-nosed, commie sack of shit”, or “you scaremongers will destroy the entire world economy and take us back to the Stone Age”, are the unwitting recruits of campaigns they have never heard of.
Welcome to our world, George. BTW, George ends the column with:
These people haven’t fooled themselves, but they might have fooled you. Who, among those of you who claim that climate scientists are liars and environmentalists are stooges, has thought it through for yourself?
About half of the comments have been removed by the moderator, but many of those that remain amount to knee-jerk rightie talking points, thereby underscoring Monbiot.
At Time magazine, Bryan Walsh writes “The Stolen E-Mails: Has ‘Climategate’ Been Overblown?” which does a good job of explaining the facts behind swifthack. Here’s just a bit:
According to PSU’s Mann, that statistical “trick” that Jones refers to in one e-mail — which has been trumpeted by skeptics — simply referred to the replacing of proxy temperature data from tree rings in recent years with more accurate data from air temperatures. It’s an analytical technique that has been openly discussed in scientific journals for over a decade — hardly the stuff of conspiracy.
As for Mann and Jones’ apparent effort to punish the journal Climate Research, the paper that ignited his indignation is a 2003 study that turned out to be underwritten by the American Petroleum Institute. Eventually half the editorial board of the journal quit in protest. And even if CRU’s climate data turns out to have some holes, the group is only one of four major agencies, including NASA, that contribute temperature data to major climate models — and CRU’s data largely matches up with the others’.
In brief, some of the scientists went a bit overboard battling the climate-change deniers, which is understandable. But the great injustice of this battle between truth and fiction is that the deniers don’t have to play by any rules. They can lie, cheat, fudge, use character assassination and guilt-by-proxy arguments all they like. But scientists may not, because if they fall off their pedestals for even a moment, the deniers will eat them alive.
You are maha – climate change deniers can say any shit they want because no one expects them to be fair, honest or smart.
What amazes me is the counter-argument that some conservatives idiots make that the earth is cooling, I mean either way this would be a disaster, so why would so many scientists want to contend that the earth was warming? Wouldn’t they receive the same amount of press from declaring the earth was cooling?
But there I go again, expecting sanity from conservatives, silly me.
The first thing that came to mind, when I heard the repugs were going to the climate change meeting, was wait until the rest of the world hears the fruitcakes we are dealing with here! My guess is this is only the first interview of this kind, and won’t be the last one that one of the people involved will end it with, what an @$$#01e.
I find it amazing that the same dopes who firmly believe in the burning bush, the water to wine, the parting of the seas, can’t believe that spewing tons of shit into the atmosphere everyday is bad. Maybe the climate scientists should make the phenomenon more “spiritual”.
Regarding brainwashing, has anyone read Virus of the Mind? It keeps popping up into my life from various directions; it looked interesting as I thumbed through it in a bookstore.
I watched Idiocracy last night, and saw the same frustration of dealing with brainwashed morons. Resistant to logic or argument, all they could do was repeat corporate slogans that they themselves were unwilling or unable to take apart. The movie is hilarious but also disturbing, as it’s way too close to home.
It takes an idiot to invoke “big oil†when the CRU e-mails show Esso and BP Amoco going to the various IPCC AR3 meetings along with Shell who was offering a “strategic partner†along with student grants (0962818260). That “big oil†cannard just isn’t going to work anymore.
Moonbat,
Idiocracy yeah I love that movie, it’s got electrolytes! Did you notice the only news available was FAUX! Your right though, way to close to the way things are now.
Neo — I have no idea what point you are trying to make.
How I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve thought this to myself in the years since St. Ronnie was elected.
“Yesterday upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today, Oh how I wish he’d go away.”
I’ll bet all the delegates in Copenhagen will be glad to see the last of the “Truth Squad” mabye they can play “Circular Firing Squad” afterward. :^)
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/08/inhofe-mischaracterizes-meteorologial/
http://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/6450101925
and now this…
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=30879
I always smile sourly at this. The Europeans looked down on us for so long, I want to see how well they stand up to this–where one side has embraced lies and madness.
Didn’t finish my comment.
“On the other hand, I’d like them to beat it because I don’t believe it can be beaten.”
I’m also puzzed by Neo’s big oil comment. Appears to be a new thing, search on “CRU looks to big oil for support”. From a very quick skim, looks to me like somebody at/associated with CRU making a good-faith effort to engage with a “climate change team” at Shell.
I recently noticed a good detailed discussion of peer review and bad climate change papers, from 2005 so a little out of date, at realclimate.org, at
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/01/peer-review-a-necessary-but-not-sufficient-condition/
It’s a good window into the peer review process in the climate change scientific community.
It would be nice if some of these people cherry picking (and often misreading) 10+ years of emails would release the last 12 years of *their* email as a good faith measure. That would be fun.
I think Genesis says God gave man dominion over the earth. It’s Gospel – literally – to most righties that there is an edict from on High to exploit the earth. To a liberal of any religious persuasion, it’s a stewardship, and we are accountable to future generations how we manage the earth.
Another way to look at it – Righties think the earth is unbreakable, in the way passengers thought the Titanic was unsinkable. They are shrill because the global warming science contradicts not only their world view – it contadicts their spiritual beliefs.
For a few centuries the church was in denial of Galleleo’s observation that the earth revolves around the sun. It was heresy. Truth will stay truth and eventually the evidence was overwhelming and the church relented – and nothing changed except textbooks. However in this case, the water is rising as with the Titanic and the price we might pay for even a few decades of denial may be catastrophic not for the earth which has survived countless extinctions nicely, but for mankind and civilization.
As a Brit, I think it’s safe to say that Morano’s performance on that TV slot would have done his cause far more harm than good in the eyes of the British viewer. He comes across as oily and sneaky and his right wing ‘dog whistle’ words and phrases won’t work on a British audience.
And the chuckling Morano produced while Professor Watson was talking lost him even more points.
Prof. Watson’s parting “What an arsehole!” would have endeared him to most viewers as well.
~~~
Neo:
> That “big oil†cannard just isn’t going to work anymore.
Right-Wing Oil Billionaire David Koch Funding SwiftBoat Campaign Against Global Warming Science. http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/07/koch-swiftboat-science/
“I think Genesis says God gave man dominion over the earth. It’s Gospel – literally – to most righties that there is an edict from on High to exploit the earth.”
I’m sure many of the most special wingnuts may buy into that, but I would argue most are just repeating the dimwitted talking points programmed by big energy interest corporate media. The whole disinformation campaign can easily be traced to big money oil, coal, gas, the swiftboaters as Maha has shown. I think maybe the reason they have gained considerable traction is that the other side has engaged in some of the same corporate sales job tactics, Green is universal, really?. So the average dimwit don’t know who to believe. Sadly the whole climate change argument is beyond the average citizen’s ability to comprehend. This is what happens when we as a country don’t learn basic science.
Nicely Done:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/08/copenhagen-a-to-z/
Is that really the way all righties behave on American television? They all try to look like Tony Soprano? Wow.
Is that really the way all righties behave on American television? They all try to look like Tony Soprano? Wow.
Yes. For many years, “discussion” of any serious issue in American news media has consisted of right-wing goons talking over and ridiculing anyone with anything intelligent to say. And in many news venues they don’t even bother to invite anyone to talk over and ridicule; they just bring on the goons. This has a lot to do with why we can’t accomplish anything useful any more.