The anti-global-warming people are just filled with hate for anyone who suggests that maybe, just maybe, the vast majority of scientists are right. –Paul Krugman
It's not enough to bash in heads, you have to bash in minds
The anti-global-warming people are just filled with hate for anyone who suggests that maybe, just maybe, the vast majority of scientists are right. –Paul Krugman
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I really don’t think he’s the best guy to quote from concerning ‘hate’. After all, he was one of the guys who practically advocated charging Fox News with hate crimes for hosting anti-abortion commentaries. He blamed Fox News for the assassination of an abortion doctor by a mentally unstable guy some months ago. The only caveat he added was that Fox News didn’t “directly” advocate violence…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/opinion/12krugman.html
But it seems to me that he has a hate-on for people who disagree with him. And to broadly attack everyone who disagrees with him as ‘filled with hate’ is a sign of intolerance.
I think there are plenty of legitimate reasons to hate Fox News, but that is bedsides the point. I am not here to defend Krugman, or to assert that he is not hypocritical. I don’t follow his writings very closely at all.
But he is right on the money this time. I know this from personal experience. I have been called a communist, a Nazi (which is particularly offensive because I have family members who went through unimaginable hell during the holocaust), and even been accused of advocating genocide. All of this was on top of less offensive names and insults that are more or less the norm on the Internet. I’ve even been threatened with lawsuits.
Why? Because I dare to say things like I think the scientific consensus on AGW is likely correct.
It was partly because of this hate that I now moderate comments far more that I would like.
Whatever Krugman may have written in the past, I know he is right this time around.
I humbly disagree.
There are indeed some people who are all agitated and angry who are part of the anti-AGW movement. But that is not all of them, nor is is even most of them. Just as not all members of the climate change movement are radical hacks intent upon forcing us all to shiver in the cold while making millions themselves (ie Al Gore), not all anti-AGW people are ‘full of hate’ and radical crazies.
Its terrible that you’ve been attacked so virulently and its understandable that you would become polarized because of it. This may be a ‘doctor heal thyself’ moment, but you can not let some people bend your perspective to make you believe that everyone on the other side of the fence are as unreasonable and irrational as the ones on the front line. Is every Republican a carbon copy of Sarah Palin? Is every Democrat a mirror image of Nancy Pelosi? Of course not.
Better to think of others as misguided rather than evil, even if you are probably wrong. Because once you start down the path of demonizing your opponent, it can lead to places far worse than where we are now and legitimizes further more draconian actions against them. That is where I feel Krugman has been going for a long time.
I don’t think I was clear. Let me try to clarify.
I am under no impression that every denier (which is different from skeptic) is rude or filled with hate. Obviously that is not true. But many are, though I am open to the notion that they might be a vocal minority.
I would also not characterize most of them as evil. Even those who knowingly mislead (Marc Morano comes to mind) wouldn’t necessarily count as evil. But its close, and ultimately depends on your definition of evil.
Honestly I think the majority of deniers can be explained by intellectual laziness. Ie: They don’t like the policy implications of AGW so they deny it is a problem. Some take it further and attempt to rationalize their point of view, but suffer from the Dunning–Kruger effect.
One more thing:
Generally no, but in regards to AGW and amongst elected Republicans, yes. Unfortunately.