Bill Dog's Journal: whoa, slow down there cowboy!

A front-page article here today says that now 71% of Americans think that global warming is real. And as is customary with Slashdot, since no submission is ready for the front page until a trailing comment has been added to crank up the trollish nature of it, "and all it took was twelve years of overwhelming scientific consensus" was appended.

So what? There's overwhelming journalistic consensus that only Liberal candidates should be in office, for the good of the country. Hasn't stopped me from almost completely avoiding voting for Liberal candidates. Maybe that's precisely why it took so long.

Also, it couldn't have helped that, as is a common Left-wing tactic, dissenters in the scientific community were out-shouted and made out to be that they never existed. It's hard for intelligent people to be convinced by those who hide things and pretend like there's no opposition.

But, anything can be made to stick if you just beat it into peoples' heads long enough. People have acute enough sanity compasses, but they're only accurate for instantaneous measurements, and are susceptible to very gradual erosions of sanity. A change that would strike most as completely nuts if it happened overnight can be eased in until one day it seems perfectly normal to most. We're not good about keeping our sights on a fixed frame of reference.

For the sake of argument, say the temperature records are accurate, even the ones from long ago using older technology. Let's even say that we've been keeping accurate enough records for long enough, that it's even meaningful to say that we can recognize a trend. Let's say I'm one of the 71% of Americans who will say, okay, maybe we are on a warming trend. So what? That doesn't mean I've drank the kool-aid. One can believe in global warming without believing in Global Warming. That is that humans are causing it and are evil and automobiles are too and so is urban sprawl and consumerism and freedom and will result in the destruction of the planet and we're ruining it for all the innocent plants and animals blah blah blah. Because 71% of Americans now think global warming is real doesn't necessarily mean that those who've made it their religion are going to suddenly get every kooky thing they want.

Not yet. Keep pounding it into our heads.

Offending your religion, isn't it?

[Chemisor]

> Also, it couldn't have helped that, as is a common Left-wing tactic, dissenters in
> the scientific community were out-shouted and made out to be that they never existed.

Funny, I always saw that as the Republican right wing tactic. Fear and smear; that's what the right wingers do best.

> dissenters in the scientific community were out-shouted and made out to
> be that they never existed.

Nobody denies that dissent existed. Every argument has at least two sides, or there would have been no argument

Re:Offending your religion, isn't it?

[Bill Dog]

Funny, I always saw that as the Republican right wing tactic. Fear and smear; that's what the right wingers do best.

Interesting. Sometimes you appear as a non-partisan. And yet other times you clearly come down on one side.

But that does not mean you should discard human-made emissions as the cause until you have proof otherwise.

Oh, I see, so when it comes to Global Warming, the burden of proof is on the unbeliever, but when it comes to the existence of God, the burden of proof is on the believer. How splend

Logic and Global Warming

[Chemisor]

> Interesting. Sometimes you appear as a non-partisan.
> And yet other times you clearly come down on one side.

But which side? :) You represent the right wing, so when I disagree, you assume my opinions to belong to the opposite side. The truth is, of course, that I am simply a man who makes his own decisions and doesn't give a damn what other people think. I am not a member of any group, nor do I wish to be, since most group opinions tend to be wrong. Not because every group member is stupid, but beca

Re:Logic and Global Warming

[G)-(ostly]

Why are you arguing with him? His entire argument is that he knows better than the facts "just because". There's no counter-argument to that. No matter what you say, he can just keep saying that he knows better.

Re:Logic and Global Warming

[Chemisor]

> Why are you arguing with him?

Because I care.
Because for once I would like to see if it is possible to make a person see through his delusion.
Because it would be interesting to see how far denial of reality can be pushed with facts that contradict it.
Because I like arguing.
Because it is the right thing to do.

> His entire argument is that he knows better than the facts "just because".

Yes and no. It is the apparent argument, as I have pointed out in the reply you are replying to. His real argument has

Re:Logic and Global Warming

[Bill Dog]

You're not going to pry anything out of me. I have standards of self-behavior, that I don't always live up to perfectly, but strive to. I gave you a taste of what is just one of the reasons I'm unable to play along. That's as far as I'm willing to go in straddling the line between being respectful and rude.

Re:Logic and Global Warming

[Chemisor]

> You're not going to pry anything out of me. I have standards of self-behavior,
> that I don't always live up to perfectly, but strive to.

LOL :) Let me guess, you are following your mama's advice about not talking to strangers? ;) Seriously, I do not see how any standard of self-behaviour can prohibit giving reasons for your beliefs. Only hermits living a life of complete isolation never talk about such things; everyone else talks of little but.

> I gave you a taste of what is just one of the reason

Re:Logic and Global Warming

[G)-(ostly]

No, that's his argument, trust me. There's a contingent of truly ridiculous slashdot posters who are so thoroughly self-absorbed that nothing, no matter what, could ever convince them that they don't have some sort of superior, ingrained insight into things that nobody else does. Whether it's this dolt claiming that all the experts who should know what they're talking about somehow all started saying basically the same wrong thing all at once, or some whacko absolutely convinced that the WTC towers came dow

Re:Logic and Global Warming

[Chemisor]

> there are just plain stupid people here with plain stupid opinions

Yes, but let me ask you, whose fault is it? There are biologically stupid people who really can't think all that well due to the way their brain is made, and then there are culturally stupid people whose brains are crippled by delusional beliefs propagated by religion, communists, and Republicans. It is getting to the point that almost all the people I meet are culturally stupid. What am I to do? You might just sit back and let them make