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Oh, now it is clear why any other interpretation of the global warming is met with name calling and personal attacks (mostly trying to engineer some link betwee

by 1gor 18y ago

Oh, now it is clear why any other interpretation of the global warming is met with name calling and personal attacks (mostly trying to engineer some link between the opponent and the oil industry). It's because we are dealing with a religion. Beliefs are not to be questioned by definition. That's OK, but only up as long as the believers do not try to shut the scientists up. Which sadly is commonplace nowadays. Thankfully, it seems a topic like this can at least be discussed on HN. I've seen some scientists' discenting views published in mainstream British press... The resulting outcry was not pretty.

gruseom 18y ago
It's the same in Canada. I heard a phone-in show on CBC radio where a climatologist with unorthodox views was subjected to hysterical, nasty personal attacks like nothing I'd observed before. (Among which, you're right, he was accused of taking bribes from the oil industry.) Meanwhile his arguments were never addressed. Which, of course, doesn't mean his arguments were correct. It does say something about what Dyson calls secular religion, though. Edit: I just remembered something funny that's related. I went with my son's class on a field trip to the planetarium once. Instead of the nice star show everyone was expecting, the kids were shown a film about global warming. That wasn't so bad, except that it was the worst kind of propaganda: millions of people are going to die in flooding and other natural disasters, millions more will die of malaria, all kinds of cute animals are going to die, etc, etc... unless you kids grow up to do something about it. How low do you have to stoop to propagandize grade-school children by scaring the crap out of them?! Anyway, the film ended with some advice about turning off dripping faucets (I swear)! The lights were turned on and we all looked at each other in stunned silence. Then one hilarious child said, quite loudly, "Do as we say, or hurricanes will destroy your house!" The entire audience cracked up. We laughed it out of our system and moved on happily to the next event. I swear that kid has a future in show business...
- 1gor 18y ago
  I think it's a kind of natural selection for kids. Surviving the peer pressure (and authority pressure). That should be OK education for some of them, not for the majority though. Funny, I was exposed to similar bullshit growing up in the communist USSR. All propaganda forced on people was always justified by the most of humane reasons. Do you want to support the oppressed of the world? The starving? The exploited? Of course we were! It was only later in life you start to notice some fat smirking person sitting in the shadows and enjoying the fruits of that mass enthusiasm... and mass scarifie. Some of the kids I new have noticed the falsehood early on, but decided to play along. Most were clueless and later shocked when the whole communist system collapsed around them. And a rare few had chosen to simply stand for the truth and face the consequences.

by 1gor 18y ago

gruseom 18y ago

It's the same in Canada. I heard a phone-in show on CBC radio where a climatologist with unorthodox views was subjected to hysterical, nasty personal attacks like nothing I'd observed before. (Among which, you're right, he was accused of taking bribes from the oil industry.) Meanwhile his arguments were never addressed. Which, of course, doesn't mean his arguments were correct. It does say something about what Dyson calls secular religion, though. Edit: I just remembered something funny that's related. I went with my son's class on a field trip to the planetarium once. Instead of the nice star show everyone was expecting, the kids were shown a film about global warming. That wasn't so bad, except that it was the worst kind of propaganda: millions of people are going to die in flooding and other natural disasters, millions more will die of malaria, all kinds of cute animals are going to die, etc, etc... unless you kids grow up to do something about it. How low do you have to stoop to propagandize grade-school children by scaring the crap out of them?! Anyway, the film ended with some advice about turning off dripping faucets (I swear)! The lights were turned on and we all looked at each other in stunned silence. Then one hilarious child said, quite loudly, "Do as we say, or hurricanes will destroy your house!" The entire audience cracked up. We laughed it out of our system and moved on happily to the next event. I swear that kid has a future in show business...

1gor 18y ago
I think it's a kind of natural selection for kids. Surviving the peer pressure (and authority pressure). That should be OK education for some of them, not for the majority though. Funny, I was exposed to similar bullshit growing up in the communist USSR. All propaganda forced on people was always justified by the most of humane reasons. Do you want to support the oppressed of the world? The starving? The exploited? Of course we were! It was only later in life you start to notice some fat smirking person sitting in the shadows and enjoying the fruits of that mass enthusiasm... and mass scarifie. Some of the kids I new have noticed the falsehood early on, but decided to play along. Most were clueless and later shocked when the whole communist system collapsed around them. And a rare few had chosen to simply stand for the truth and face the consequences.