Summary: After a long series of “ask a question” posts, today we turn the tables. Today we “ask the mineshaft. Aka “ask the community”, from the German “Gemeinschaft” (see Wikpedia). Share your answers to these questions. This idea copied from Brad DeLong.
Contents
- Lies by warmistas
- Lies by Republicans
- One possible explanation for all these lies
- Update: suggestions for the Smackdown page?
- For more information
(1) Why do warmistas (aka, fanatic believers in anthropogenic global warming leading to climate disruption) lie so often?
Kant said that when judging the morality of an act, we must weigh the intentions of the actor. Was he acting selfishly, to benefit himself, or selflessly, to help others? By this criterion, Gleick’s lie was clearly moral, because he was defending a cause that he passionately views as righteous. Gleick, you might say, is a hero comparable to Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who in 1971 stole and released documents that revealed that U.S. officials lied to justify the war in Vietnam.
… I’ll give the last word to one of my students. The Gleick incident, he said, shows that the “debate” over global warming is not really a debate any more. It’s a war, and when people are waging war, they always lie for their cause.
— “Should Global-Warming Activists Lie to Defend Their Cause?“, John Horgan, Scientific American, 24 February 2012 — Note the author’s obliviousness of the difference between releasing true documents and faking documents.
Much of the propaganda compaign about AGW consists of lies (unlike the debate among climate scientists). We see this with the news media coverage of the climategate documents from the UK Climate Research Unit (we don’t know they were stolen, as the news media say; they probably came from an insider).
We see this with the forged Heartland Institute strategy memo. It’s a pitifully obvious fake (by the evidence, probably written by Pacific Institute President Peter Glick) but its lies have been eagerly embraced and disseminated by dozens of warmistas. (If you have not followed this fascinating story, see Climate Audit, Judith Curry’s and Anthony Watt’s websites.
We see this on the FM website. What’s the most-common response to posts quoting prominent climate scientists and research from prominent peer-reviewed journals? “You don’t believe the world has warmed.” Rather than debate the issues raised, they manufacture a smear. No matter if the post says the exact opposite. No matter if the data in the post shows the exact opposite. They will repeat the lie, and run away when challenged. For an example see the responses to January’s series about climate science.
For more about this see:
- More attempts to control the climate science debate using smears and swarming, 19 October 2009
- A real-time example of the birth and spread of climate propaganda, 9 March 2010
- Fear or Fail: about the melting Greenland ice sheet, 24 May 2010
- Lies told under the influence of the Green religion to save the world, 30 July 2010
(2) Why do Republicans lie so much?
Brad DeLong runs a series of posts “Republicans Lie about Everything, all the time”, providing a large body of evidence. A few examples:
- One of the many examples of Newt’s stories, about saving $500 billion in Federal money.
- One of the legendary series of lies about the GSE’s role in the housing bubble.
- The fraudulent Ryan budget.
- False claims about malpractice Reform in Texas.
- Update: “Dutch Puzzled by Santorum’s False Claim of Forced Euthanasia“
While no angels, I don’t believe the Democrats exhibit similar behavior.
(3) One possible explanation for all these lies
Those are examples of a wider trend. Advocacy groups lie frequently in America because lies work. As we become weak and foolish as a people, sophisticated propaganda methods become unnecessary.
How they used to do it: “The CIA and the Media“, Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977 — “How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency, and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up”
Now it’s easier. Blatant lies become effective. Undecided become convinced. No matter how often their leaders lie, followers remain credulous believers of the next lie. The lies about Iran in 2000 are the lies told about Iran today. And so it goes.
For more about this theory see:
- Programs to reshape the American mind, run by the left and right, 2 August 2010
- Our leaders have made a discovery of the sort that changes the destiny of nations, 15 September 2010
- The easy way to rule: leading a weak people by feeding them disinformation, 13 April 2011
- Why Conservatives are winning: they use the WMD of political debate, 28 April 2011
What do you think?
(4) Update: suggestions for the Smackdown page?
Look at the newly revised FM Reference Page of Smackdowns – corrections & rebuttals to FM posts. Please comment about anything that should get added.
(5) For more information
For a full list of posts about this see the FM reference page Information & disinformation, the new media & the old.
Some examples of propaganda and information operations run against us:
- Successful propaganda as a characteristic of 21st century America, 1 February 2010
- More propaganda: the eco-fable of Easter Island, 4 February 2010
- Can Obama turn America into something like Zimbabwe?, 22 February 2010
- Dumbest headline of the week, 1 March 2010 — Where are the skilled political smear artists?
- A note about practical propaganda, 22 March 2010
- About the political significance of the conservatives’ health care propaganda, 23 March 2010
- The similar delusions of America’s Left and Right show our common culture – and weakness, 26 March 2010
- Programs to reshape the American mind, run by the left and right, 2 August 2010
- Facts are an obstacle to the reform of America, 20 October 2011
- Our minds are addled, the result of skillful and expensive propaganda, 28 December 2011
- More use of the big lie: shifting the blame for the housing crisis, 29 December 2011