Saturday, August 11, 2018

In which the pond enjoys some weekend hive mind denialism ...


As well as being home to white nationalism down under, News Corp has maintained a steady line in climate science denialism …

It isn't easy being a denialist at the moment, what with the news and the records and the events routinely problematic for denialism, but never under-estimate the valiant work of Lloydie …

When it comes to a murmuration of reptile deniers, Lloydie is the cunning joker in the pack.

It will be remembered that the pond featured Lloydie on a recent climate science paper … and it was inevitable that payback would be due, and so it was, and so it came this day ...


Thus far Lloydie has done what he does best … report on a controversy in a way that sows doubt and confusion, scientists in conflict, and truth nowhere to be found …

The Atlantic ran its story back in July here, and it actually has nothing to do with Steffen's paper … while The New Yorker ran a story When did the human epoch begin? back in March 2015.

But in Lloydie's world, it's important to show scientists in chaotic disputation, confused and argumentative, and with not the first clue as to where the truth lies …

For a rag that frequently deplores post-modernist relativism, the reptiles are remarkably adept at it ...


Yes, yes, but let's get to the real cleverness of Lloydie in action ...


Uh huh, and who might Dr David Whitehouse be?

Well he attracted attention in The Independent with this bold claim, though really it's just an endorsement of the Lloydie methodology ...


Yes, Davo is one of Lawson's mob, and he routinely turns up in denialist observer circles, as in David Whitehouse is very confused, and in Desmog here, and in the Graudian here, and so on and so forth … Whitehouse has been very active in misleading the public in the name of free speech, and so his name and his works are easily googled.

Why isn't a shred, a scintilla of this mentioned by Lloydie when quoting Whitehouse?

Well because Lloydie is in exactly the same game, and he works tirelessly to mislead the public and promote denialism …

And so to another serve ...


Here the important thing to remember, in this murmuration of reptiles, is that the dog botherer is a dedicated denialist … but he too purports a certain Lloydie cleverness.

Not being a scientist, he rarely tackles the science … instead he prefers to snipe from the sidelines … but when read with the understanding that he is a fervent - some might say pathological - denialist, every word he scribbles resonates in a dog whistle way ...


Of course if you're a denialist with the same fervent beliefs as the Donald, the talk must be always about the futility of doing anything …


Oh okay the pond just slipped in a Donald cartoon because we've trudged down this path with the dog botherer a zillion times … because it's not just a murmuration or a hive mind, it's a repetitive, monotonous regurgitation of all the usual talking points ...


Yes, it's all the same, with the explicit argument being that it's all futile self-harm and for what, because climate science is just a hoax, or a religion, or perhaps, being a religion, one of the usual religious hoaxes that are at the heart of the glories of Western Civilisation …

Here have another cartoon or two, it might help the queasy feeling in the stomach …


  

Like dashing Donners, the dog botherer seems to have an auto-print function on the keyboard, which allows the same word salad to turn up again and again with slight variations …


And there you have it, should you need reminding … no one cares less. And why?

Well since you asked, which suggests you haven't been paying right and proper attention to the dog botherer, because climate science is a hoax, or a religion, or a religious hoax …

Here, have another cartoon, as we're speaking in hope of political waves …


Okay, only one gobbet to go ...


Where did all this come from? 

Well the usual source, with the same usual taste for mischief, coal, subversion and denial …

The immortal Pope summed it all up with a taste of Pooh this day … with more papal pleasures here


By golly, if only he'd had room to sketch Lloydie and the dog botherer into that rabbit hole, tugging away with the tugging onion muncher …tugging and tugging, and producing all sorts of useless emissions …


4 comments:

  1. Well it has been one of those weekends so far, DP. First Neddy on his endless crusade to say the same thing an infinite number of times, and then we get Lloydie and the Doggy Bov both on that self-same mission.

    But esoteric discussions disregarded, I for one certainly regard this as the 'Anthropocene Era' and I reckon it all started back in 1882 when Edison built the world's first coal fired DC electric power stations in Appleton, Wisconsin and New York City. Followed not much later (courtesy of Mr Bessemer's Converter) by steam driven steel hulled ships that promoted a rush into world-wide manufacturing trade - plus, of course, an enormous expansion of coal burning steam trains and finally, petroleum burning motor vehicles.

    And the ozone layer hole was just a minor blip along the way which notheless, for those wide awake and thinking, showed just how much impact on the natural environment puny humans could achieve without even trying.

    Of course, we'd all known that since way back in 1896 when Svante Arrhenius "calculated the effect of a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide to be an increase in surface temperatures of 5–6 degrees Celsius."

    That's 122 years ago, and the reptiles are still passionately defending their insane denial. But then, most religions run for thousands of years, don't they.

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  2. Oh, so _that's_ the Brexit link? Riiiight. Thank god he spelled it for us because I would have missed it. I was sure it was the Codral thing.

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  3. The irony, of course, is that the self-harm will be caused by our failure to modernise, not by keeping up with the rest of the world. It's an old story of entrenched interests fighting a disruptive technology. It has happened again and again, but it seems we have to play it out another time.

    Most recently, think of Kodak having a lead in digital but unable to grasp the opportunity. Most times it isn't failure due to unnecessary change, it's failure due to inability to adapt.

    Without picking through the errors, the facts are easily discoverable. New renewables are cheaper than new coal and PV already employs more people than fossil fuelled power. Change will happen, it's just how much damage the troglodytes can cause through distortions intended to address nonexistent problems.

    The reptiles assignment is to spread FUD. If you could transport Ned back to the 1880s (what an excellent idea) he would be defending the gaslight industry by warning of the dangers of electricity (Edison did his best to white ant Tesla - so FUD has a long history).

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    1. You know, Bef, there used to be a saying that "Gillette didn't invent the electric razor" (and he didn't even invent the safety razor apparently, just the 'replaceable blades' version).

      On the other hand, Kodak did invent the digital camera (in 1975) but, as you say, completely failed to exploit it.

      Then again, one of the key reasons Australia didn't develop a computer industry was the apparent acceptance of T J Watson's pronouncement that "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

      Progress is a wonder, ennit.

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