In which the pond refuses to argue with the Caterist ...

 

Over the weekend, when the Beeb decided to run a hagiography about a recently deceased member of Hitler Youth, the pond switched over to RN and caught up on a repeated of David Rutledge's The Philosopher's Zone, with the episode dedicated to conspiracy theories, and the  related ideas of Charles Blattberg, a prof in Montreal (the episode's here with a link to Blattberg's paper).

Blattberg had a simple proposal for how to deal with conspiracy theorists. 

Don't argue with them, don't try to refute them, don't lead with facts and figures, don't try to sway them. That just says they deserve to be taken seriously, and in many cases,  just hardens the conspiracists into a rock-like shell of irrational thinking. 

Instead mock them, make fun of them, or translated into Australian argot, send them up shitless.

It was a vast relief to the pond, and Blattberg mentioned Curb Your Enthusiasm, a pond favourite, as a way forward when dealing with anti-semitism. Enough said. Who else could confuse a survivor of the Holocaust with a survivor of the eponymous TV show?

The pond has sometimes wondered about its juvenile tendency to use nicknames and to refuse to engage or debate or argue with the reptiles, but doing any of that only suggests that their delusions should be taken seriously. 

Intuitively the pond had hit on the right - Blattberg approved - response. Mock them, marvel at their stupidity, hopefully induce a few cackles, or even the occasional gale of laughter.

This being the only way to deal with the loony tunes and maroons at the lizard Oz, the pond looked forward to its Monday encounter with the reptiles with renewed confidence. 

The pond had no hope that Major Mitchell would break his holydays to make an appearance - enough already with the revolving line of editors at the lizard Oz, as noted by a pond correspondent - but there'd always be another reptile, as with the lesser member of the Kelly gang ...

Joe's no "Ned" but the pond is sure he meant to scribble "the approach taken to the voice in the lizard Oz is a case study of how the politics of the blame game works in Murdochian media."

So Joe immediately earned a red card and the pond moved on to surveying the rest of the dismal second eleven scene this morning ...

The pond has absolutely no idea why Jimbo would head behind the paywall, so that idle punters only get to read his thoughts if they kick in a few shekels to the chairman's coffers, and in any case whatever he's scribbled was immediately undercut by his companion, the wretched Caterist (the lizard Oz editorialist and a """ offered the usual holyday makeweights, but enough of all that).

So it was on to the Caterist as the only offering this day, because whenever thinking of climate science, you should immediately turn to a master of the movement of floodwaters in quarries ... right?

Uh huh. First impressions? Naturally the pond was drawn to the illustration, because it didn't feature a snap of a coal-fired power station, satanic windmills, solar panels, or the nuking of the country. So the reptiles are making a weird sort of progression ...

As for the rest, recall that the pond isn't going to ague with the Caterist, blathering on about catastrophists and eco-pessimists and all the rest of the stock in trade of the full-blown climate denialist ...

Just remember that back in 2019 the chairman himself said "there are no climate change deniers around I can assure you" and then in 2021 came this, here ...

Many Americans know that Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is home to some of the most vocal climate change deniers in the U.S.

For years, conservative host Laura Ingraham has said climate change was based on scientific fraud and that global warming was a lie.

But recently, Vice News reported that Murdoch’s company News Corporation has documented its own internal carbon footprint since 2006 and has privately sought to take a leadership role on climate change.

And just last month, the company’s arm in Australia debuted an editorial campaign in its tabloids, playing up the need for the world to cut emissions by 2050. The coverage is a sharp turn for the Murdoch outlets, which for years have been peddlers of climate denial.

But critics aren't convinced Murdoch has turned a new leaf.

Gabi Mocatta has been keeping tabs on the News Corp campaign called Mission Zero. She's a research fellow in climate change communication at the University of Tasmania and a lecturer in journalism at Deakin University in Melbourne in Australia.

Mission Zero focuses on climate change and economic benefits for Australia. Stories from News Corp-owned tabloids now champion the need to get to net zero by 2050 and argue decarbonization won’t be as expensive as they previously reported. Articles hype up how these moves will bolster thousands of more jobs for Australians.

“That's a big turnabout, but that's just scratching the surface,” Mocatta says. “There's a bit more to dig into and analyze.”

For years, News Corp entities, whether digital, print or broadcast, have often spewed an anti-action message on climate change. Similar to Ingraham in the U.S., Sky News Australia broadcasters and their guests have called those pushing for climate change action “loons,” “hysterics” and “a cult of the elite” who have “children brainwashed.”

The new campaign isn’t necessarily swaying from the norm, she says, but rather going from “climate denialism” to pushing “climate delay.”

Sorry folks at WBUR, sorry Jimbo, we're back to full-blown climate science denialism, courtesy the expert in the movement of flood waters in quarries ...

 

So here's the thing, speaking of capering Caterist clowns and the need for comedy ...

Note that reference to one "David" Epstein. Should anyone go searching for "Davo", they'd have a desperate time of it ... but if they went in search of Alex Epstein, they might have a better result, that's if you were searching for someone who had a BA in philosophy and so considered himself a philosopher - or at least Caterist, something of a sociologist himself, does - and who is deep in the pockets of coal ...

So much for the Chairman's bullshit, and there's the company you keep Jimbo, and there's a huge amount more at Alex "Davo" Epstein's DeSmog listing here, way too rich for the pond to cover ... 

As you can always expect from the Caterist, he landed on a live one ... for "Davo" really is an extremely active trollm and full-blown devotee of the mango Mussolini and his deeds, per this sample ...

And so on and on and on, from this "Davo" Epstein, BA in philosophy from Duke University ...

Meanwhile, the splash at the top of the digital page of the lizard Oz this morning? Comfort in climate paradise ...

And the feature story with photo in the middle of the tree killer edition? More comfort in climate paradise ...

The worst flooding that Western Australia has ever seen, so they say, and meanwhile, How climate change is affecting what's on the shelves at your local supermarket ...

And there you have it ... the Caterist notion of a liveable planet ... and so for a final trolling ...

Did the pond say "and there you have it"?

Never mind, and there you have it, a man without any scientific qualifications but a degree in sociology, quoting a man without any scientific qualifications but a degree in philosophy and expertise in trousering money from the Koch brothers ... and meanwhile the chairman says there's no climate science denialism to see in his rags, and Jimbo apparently hasn't the first clue about the company he keeps ...

And that's why the pond will never bother arguing, and only regrets that this day the immortal Rowe decided to send up another clown car shitless ... though at least the lesser member of the Kelly gang set the scene for him ...

And in lieu of a reptile bonus, here's a few more cartoons celebrating where the GOP has landed ...

If you translate the mutilations and comedy across to climate science, it'll all make sense ...