So how did lefties get convinced of global warming in the first place, without knowing anything about it. Why did they get convinced of it. Why was it so easy to convince them of a thing, in this instance, but not others? A thing which has such radical ramifications? Is there any other plausible explanation besides this one:It's religious faith. The
They wanted to be convinced of it, because they like its ramifications, because those ramifications seem to coincide with political aims they already wanted.
And not only did they get convinced, but they’ve now become imbued with such self-righteousness on the subject that they’re comfortable with murdering dissenters. Over a thing they don’t really know jack squat about.
The similarities with Intelligent Design are striking. There is a conclusion that is assumed a priori. Data and theory are cherry-picked to hang on the scaffold of the pre-assumed theory. When the data are shown to be flawed, the Intelligent Design proponent points you to a different piece of data.
Urban Heat Island effect? Nah - look at the positive CO2 forcing models!
Sonic Charmer recommends embarrassing these people, and I concur. My preferred method is to frame their belief in explicitly religious terms, because of the wide overlap between people who believe in Global Warming and people who think that traditionally religious people are knuckle-dragging idiots. I believe that both propositions are wrong, but the added frisson of Cognitive Dissonance is usually delicious.
7 comments:
I am reminded of something I read on the internet somewhere that said something like "A lot of people believed the priests before the invention of the printing press." I like to add "Do you remember what happened next?"
This is not to say anything bad about priests or religion, but you need to READ THE TEXT YOURSELF and come to your own conclusions or else no one has any reason to listen to you.
"Do you remember what happened next?"
Their arguments with one another over which set of priests to believe turned Europe into a giant slaughterhouse for decades?
I think this sums it up:
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5650/happened.jpg
I agree with SC's position that most lefties embrace global warming because it dovetails nicely with their desire to tell everyone what to do. However, I'm not sure its right to criticize all lefty supporters because they aren't all climate scientists.
I have only a passing acquaintance with how the internal combustion engine works, but I am happy to recommend that everyone who wants a 4WD get a Toyota FJ Cruiser. They rock. Even Consumer Reports says so.
I know some about firearms, but not enough to tell you that Glock 17s rule and others drool. But I would happily tell you that Glocks are carried by every Navy Seal, cop, and even an SAS guy I know when they have a choice about what to carry.
Those are both appeals to authority because frankly I don't have time to become an expert automobile designer or combat handgunner. Other people do and I trust their judgement. I wouldn't trust any of those people to build me a website or code a credit card processing app, because they have no expertise in those areas.
Unlike you, BP, I just don't have the time to delve into all the climate science. However, I don't trust the judgment of the people pushing it because they have proven themselves to be giant fascist weasels in the past. But I can understand lefties going along with their leaders because they trust them. We need to keep showing them, like you do on your blog, that their trust has been misplaced (re: they are all fascist weasels).
Of course I am sort of defending the low level lefty here. But that video seriously makes me want to punch a few of the hippies in the face.
Being a religious person trained as a biologist, I truly hate Intelligent Design theory. I explain it to my boy as the misguided attempt to measure love with a scale, or morality with a thermometer. How it is that ID proponents can deny evolutionary theory while attempting to cherrypick through approved data goes from zero to retarded in seconds.
warriorgeek,
I don't criticize lefties for not being climate scientists, or experts in general. I criticize them for being intolerant zealots about a subject on which they are not experts, or more precisely, mostly don't know what they're talking about.
As for your examples, surely there's a difference between rational appeal to authority when it comes to personal decisions and recommendations about consumer products on the one hand, and appeal to authority as the basis for zealous, intolerant belief on the other. Far as I can tell, you haven't advocated use of government force to impose your preferred (whether expert-guided or not) choice of firearm or 4WD on everyone in the world, and/or blowing up dissenters with a red button. (Yet? :-)
best,
I've heard that FJ Cruisers have gnarly thick blind spots and high shoulders which can be a visibility pain when you're rock-crawling up the side of an off-season ski-run balancing on some Tahoe granite - and no V-8 torque-motor. :-)
The fact is they are intolerant zealots who feel very good about themselves because of their zealotry - to the exclusion of others and as evidenced, the permanent exclusion.
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