8 ms·

Thank you. It's getting very tiring to debunk this every time.

by steeve 4y ago

robomartin 4y ago
Well, yeah, you are right. Sometimes I wonder why I bother at all. There's a sea of ignorance out there, deeply driven by ideological effects rather than science. They are passionate about their beliefs while being almost 100% ignorant about the realities of what they choose to be so passionate and argumentative about. It's a really odd thing. A frustrating thing, for sure. Science is about challenging every single assumption, not being cult members. And yet, these days, if you dare question the beliefs of the mob you are punished/cancelled for it and, at the extremes, suffer potentially serious real-life consequences (anything from losing your job to physical harm). This isn't a society in search of enlightenment and progress. Quite to the contrary. Frankly, if I were a researcher in this field I would probably end-up having to say what they want me to say. Ethics aside, when your entire career, your wellbeing and that of your family depend on the crazies not destroying your life the choices are very limited indeed. I am always surprised that the cult members do not realize that this behavior is, ultimately, self-defeating. History is marked by shifts in beliefs and centers of power. Which means that what someone is aligned with might not be the majority or "power" position in the future. At that moment in time you are going to wish you had extended the courtesy of promoting a civilized and open society to those who you chose to attack at the time simply because you could, because you were a part of a mob. As they say, what goes around, comes around. People tend to forget such simple ideas. The current ideology surrounding climate change, saving the planet, renewable energy, etc. is putrid at best. It's as complete to a full-on delusion as one can get. And yet, the forces at play are so powerful that you'd lose your head if you stick out too far in opposition. Simple example: In order to be able to afford building terawatts of solar and wind generation facilites we need oil, fuel, to be as cheap as dirt. Why? Because construction costs are influenced by the cost of oil and oil derivatives in a non trivial way. The more expensive oil becomes the less affordable it is to build the massive infrastructure improvements we are going to need in order to make any of this a reality. And yet, the ideological hatred for oil is causing all of our costs to double or triple, almost guaranteeing that we will not be able to make advancements at scale in these domains. Crazy. That's ideology for you.

Thank you. It's getting very tiring to debunk this every time.

by steeve 4y ago

Thank you. It's getting very tiring to debunk this every time.

Well, yeah, you are right. Sometimes I wonder why I bother at all. There's a sea of ignorance out there, deeply driven by ideological effects rather than science. They are passionate about their beliefs while being almost 100% ignorant about the realities of what they choose to be so passionate and argumentative about. It's a really odd thing. A frustrating thing, for sure. Science is about challenging every single assumption, not being cult members. And yet, these days, if you dare question the beliefs of the mob you are punished/cancelled for it and, at the extremes, suffer potentially serious real-life consequences (anything from losing your job to physical harm). This isn't a society in search of enlightenment and progress. Quite to the contrary. Frankly, if I were a researcher in this field I would probably end-up having to say what they want me to say. Ethics aside, when your entire career, your wellbeing and that of your family depend on the crazies not destroying your life the choices are very limited indeed. I am always surprised that the cult members do not realize that this behavior is, ultimately, self-defeating. History is marked by shifts in beliefs and centers of power. Which means that what someone is aligned with might not be the majority or "power" position in the future. At that moment in time you are going to wish you had extended the courtesy of promoting a civilized and open society to those who you chose to attack at the time simply because you could, because you were a part of a mob. As they say, what goes around, comes around. People tend to forget such simple ideas. The current ideology surrounding climate change, saving the planet, renewable energy, etc. is putrid at best. It's as complete to a full-on delusion as one can get. And yet, the forces at play are so powerful that you'd lose your head if you stick out too far in opposition. Simple example: In order to be able to afford building terawatts of solar and wind generation facilites we need oil, fuel, to be as cheap as dirt. Why? Because construction costs are influenced by the cost of oil and oil derivatives in a non trivial way. The more expensive oil becomes the less affordable it is to build the massive infrastructure improvements we are going to need in order to make any of this a reality. And yet, the ideological hatred for oil is causing all of our costs to double or triple, almost guaranteeing that we will not be able to make advancements at scale in these domains. Crazy. That's ideology for you.