2020-04-28

I used to think that climate change denial was built on some logical argument...

[Note: published at end of year during review.]

I'm not sure I ever did; but my headline comes from AD. He continues But COVID reveals that these people are just crazy, but I don't think that's relevant to my discussion here. So, certainly, some people are just crazy; but those are a small minority and not interesting; we're interested in the rather larger group whose attitude to GW doesn't really rise to denial, but... well, I don't really know these people you understand, but I picture them as people ideologically opposed to "big govt", disinclined to actually read through all the science (possibly lacking the science background to follow much of it) and disinclined to trust experts (perhaps in the sense of having imbued the view that it is fine not to trust experts).

To quote from a quote from an earlier postCore values, not science, are what drive conservative opposition... and “free markets” are a core value for conservatives. They view climate policy as a threat to free markets, which is the real reason they reject climate science, so messaging should assuage those fears.

Some comments on that:

Free markets really are a core value. I think a lot of leftish folk don't understand that. They aren't a core value for them, and they see everywhere that free market principles are violated, so they think the rightish folk are lying. But they aren't. So, for example, that Trump is currently trying to prop up the oil price is certainly a violation of FM; but Trump is no free marketeer. And what of those nominally FM oil companies cheering this on? Meh, they'll take money if people throw it at them, most people will.

Science is a core value for a small set of people. Certainly not for the bulk of the populace. On GW you can argue that the leftish folk have got approximately the right answer, but this is only by accident; it happens to align or can be made to align with what they wanted anyway (the idiot Green New Deal, for example) and their allegiance is shallow. Expecting people to follow details is naive; instead, most people will just take on broad-brush; they expect to get their information processed by their usual interpreters of information.

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