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al gore, for one, has said climate change skeptics are comparable to racists, and are peddling bullshit. http://www.mediaite.com/online/al-gore-compares-climat

al gore, for one, has said climate change skeptics are comparable to racists, and are peddling bullshit. http://www.mediaite.com/online/al-gore-compares-climate-change-skeptics-to-20th-century-racists/ http://www.mediaite.com/online/al-gore-compares-climate-chan... i grew up in the conservative midwest and was exposed to near lethal doses of rush limbaugh as a child. it took me FOREVER to consider that maybe global warming was real, becuase i was only hearing about it from people who were clearly motivated more by political concerns than anything else, and who insulted me for daring to disagree. i have a BS in physics, and although this in no way makes me qualified to assert climatologists are wrong, it does give me more insight into the situation than someone with no such background. i grew tired of trying to explain concepts like the physical mechanisms of heat transfer, emission / absorption spectra (which are ostensibly at the root of anthropogenic warming), the statistical mechanics definition of temperature, the idea that the atmosphere has layers, &c &c, to people who had no idea what i was talking about, and clearly didn't care. they always gave me the "pascal's wager" argument: that it didn't matter of the science was wrong, because on the chance it was right, we're fucked. i'm still not sure how i feel about global warming, but i do know this: if you want to convince people that they are wrong about something, telling them they are racist morons probably isn't going to do the trick.

epistasis 15y ago
I asked a question about scientists who say their models can't be questioned. Is this related in some way? In the interest of burning karma, let's change the subject to the interesting topic of near lethal doses of politics (as in potential loss of life). My colleagues get firebombed in their homes from morons on the leftist side of the political spectrum. In a similar manner to the filth that you linked, they are riled up by demagogues that lie and misrepresent in any way to smear their target. These followers are not bright, but they want to feel as if they are enlightened and as if the world is crazy. They just want to belong. They want to believe fervently in something. Believe that they're fighting the good fight. You can tell they're getting riled up when there's an increase in graffiti that says things like "Humans Suck" at the bus stops, or if there are fliers in scruffy coffee houses listing biology professors' home addresses. Fortunately these losers are as terrible at firebombing as they are at reaching a larger audience. In Southern California they don't even make the news due at the behest of the University. In Northern California, there's a local news article, the scientists hold a 15 minute vigil at 5:30pm and share encouraging words, then head back to their labs to squeeze in one more DNA purification or to feed the cell cultures, and the terrorism has had zero lasting effect, other than some terrified kids that crawled out the rope ladder in their room because the front door was on fire, and some FBI guys that get to sit in cars on the street for the next couple months. These aren't the "enviros" that cut power lines, harass gold miners, or tree sit, but they are friends with them. Perhaps if they had grown up in the conservative west and weren't incompetent, their terrorism would cause permanent damage to life. It doesn't matter which side of the political spectrum they come from, those who deliberately misrepresent the truth and pander to the most base and violent instincts, those who are driven by ideology rather than observation and reason, are poisoning the intellectual well. They can't be ignored, as they are more dangerous when they can play their dirty tricks in the dark, but they can't be encouraged. Very frustrating. What's the solution? I have absolutely no idea. No person in their right mind would read the quote in the linked article and think that Al Gore called climate skeptics racists. A person in their right mind would think that Al Gore was using the largest cultural shift in recent history to illustrate his prediction of another cultural shift, in Al Gore's typically goofy and easily mocked fashion. But frame the quote in the way you did, and a person is already too riled up to read it in their right mind. And maybe they don't want to be in their right mind, maybe they want to feel justified in the contempt for the political Other. It's a perfectly human reaction to circle the wagons when under attack. And thus is perfectly rational human instinct subverted to the detriment of all. But back to my question, is there any climate scientists that has said that there's no need for scientific questioning of their models? Because the impression I'm getting is climate science is fraudulent because of Al Gore. Just like when he invented the Internet, that Al Gore is getting too big for his britches. And he doesn't have Vint Cerf to bail him out this time. Edit: sorry if this came across as rude, I didn't mean to. I didn't understand your point, and then just started riffing on the great idea of a lethal dose of Rush Limbaugh.

epistasis 15y ago

I asked a question about scientists who say their models can't be questioned. Is this related in some way? In the interest of burning karma, let's change the subject to the interesting topic of near lethal doses of politics (as in potential loss of life). My colleagues get firebombed in their homes from morons on the leftist side of the political spectrum. In a similar manner to the filth that you linked, they are riled up by demagogues that lie and misrepresent in any way to smear their target. These followers are not bright, but they want to feel as if they are enlightened and as if the world is crazy. They just want to belong. They want to believe fervently in something. Believe that they're fighting the good fight. You can tell they're getting riled up when there's an increase in graffiti that says things like "Humans Suck" at the bus stops, or if there are fliers in scruffy coffee houses listing biology professors' home addresses. Fortunately these losers are as terrible at firebombing as they are at reaching a larger audience. In Southern California they don't even make the news due at the behest of the University. In Northern California, there's a local news article, the scientists hold a 15 minute vigil at 5:30pm and share encouraging words, then head back to their labs to squeeze in one more DNA purification or to feed the cell cultures, and the terrorism has had zero lasting effect, other than some terrified kids that crawled out the rope ladder in their room because the front door was on fire, and some FBI guys that get to sit in cars on the street for the next couple months. These aren't the "enviros" that cut power lines, harass gold miners, or tree sit, but they are friends with them. Perhaps if they had grown up in the conservative west and weren't incompetent, their terrorism would cause permanent damage to life. It doesn't matter which side of the political spectrum they come from, those who deliberately misrepresent the truth and pander to the most base and violent instincts, those who are driven by ideology rather than observation and reason, are poisoning the intellectual well. They can't be ignored, as they are more dangerous when they can play their dirty tricks in the dark, but they can't be encouraged. Very frustrating. What's the solution? I have absolutely no idea. No person in their right mind would read the quote in the linked article and think that Al Gore called climate skeptics racists. A person in their right mind would think that Al Gore was using the largest cultural shift in recent history to illustrate his prediction of another cultural shift, in Al Gore's typically goofy and easily mocked fashion. But frame the quote in the way you did, and a person is already too riled up to read it in their right mind. And maybe they don't want to be in their right mind, maybe they want to feel justified in the contempt for the political Other. It's a perfectly human reaction to circle the wagons when under attack. And thus is perfectly rational human instinct subverted to the detriment of all. But back to my question, is there any climate scientists that has said that there's no need for scientific questioning of their models? Because the impression I'm getting is climate science is fraudulent because of Al Gore. Just like when he invented the Internet, that Al Gore is getting too big for his britches. And he doesn't have Vint Cerf to bail him out this time. Edit: sorry if this came across as rude, I didn't mean to. I didn't understand your point, and then just started riffing on the great idea of a lethal dose of Rush Limbaugh.