Sad thing is, this should be funny as heck to most people. Key word being SHOULD
Very often, humor has connections to reality. This is funny on one side but as Tim suggests, the reality is shockingly sad.
As an atmospheric scientist, studying climate change for over 2 decades, I've witnessed a similar reality. A beneficial gas, CO2 that is greening up the planet and has increased world food production by itself by 25% and in the midst of the best weather and climate for life on this planet in the last 1,000 years...........we are being brainwashed to believe the complete opposite(that CO2 is pollution)............based on a speculative theory that is busting badly in the real world.
The similarities in the 2, seemingly different realms are amazing but suggest to me a common method.
You identify your target(s). CO2 from burning fossil fuels in one case, President Donald Trump in the other case. The objective is to create the impression that your targets must be eliminated because they pose a serious threat to us.
The methods are uncannily and incredibly similar. In both cases, its being done entirely for political purposes and in both cases by the same side.............with the exact same tactics.
Use speculative theories and exaggerations of possible bad things to completely trump(no pun intended) realities of actually occurring really good things. NEVER tell people about any of the good things. Focus discussions on what needs to be done to eliminate these catastrophic threats to human kind.
Accuse people that support the authentic science on climate change or truth about the economy or effects of Trumps policies of being anti environmental/anti science or racist/xenophones. Call them names like "deniers" or Nazi's.
What's mind boggling here is that the term that guys like me have been called for a decade "denier" actually was chosen so that people would connect it with the "deniers" of the Holocaust in Germany. Note the similarity being made now with the same atrocity being used on Trump and people supporting Trump.
Why is that?
In the history of mankind, in most peoples minds, the worst atrocity ever perpetrated on humans came from Nazi Germany. If you can align your cause as one to defeat a modern day version of the same thing...........you can win over millions. It's a brilliant marketing scheme and effective as heck.
Because your side is the one that has the righteous cause, you are able to use fake news with impunity............Trump colluded with Russia(the other evil entity that is out to destroy us-helped elect Trump to do so)so we will believe everything bad about an enemy.
Trump obstructed justice to cover up his collusion. Trump committed treason last month when he met with Putin, especially during their "secret" meeting that they wouldn't allow any witnesses too...despite the fact that Trump takes heat in foreign affairs for being overly assertive in fighting for policies that favor the US and tick off foreign countries.
CO2 causes extreme weather to increase we are told(even though the meridional temperature disparity has decreased from the coldest places on the planet warming the most and has caused things like violent tornadoes to decrease-rock solid authentic science).
Very often, heat waves, hurricanes and droughts are described as "unprecedented" and caused by climate change..........which now, is the same as man made climate change because the natural cycles don't matter anymore. Despite this, I can always show similar events in the past and usually more extreme events....like the Dust Bowl for an entire decade in the US in the 1930's . And that global drought has decreased not despite climate change but because of it.
The media and internet are the powerful communicating sources for this completely one sided, politically motivated rubbish.
I forget, are we to start believing these numbers now ?
I never know.
"In the history of mankind, in most people's minds, the worst atrocity ever perpetrated on humans came from Nazi Germany."
Exactly. And that's why I get so bent out of shape when I see someone casually referring to those with whom they disagree politically as "Nazis" on this board.
In my opinion, it is more denigrating and insulting to call someone a Nazi than it is to call him/her any of the other well-worn "curse words" -- words that we all know would garner a poster a rebuke or worse from the moderator.
It's possible you may not have noticed that about me yet.
John,
I had our discussion yesterday in mind when I responded with that post but decided not to point that out.
I have been called a science denier and climate change denier a bazillion times the past decade because I'm a skeptic of the magnitude of global climate model output which represents a speculative theory that is, by any authentic scientific measures..........too warm.
I'll finish in a minute
Hi again John,
Yeah, I got busy making dinner and came back here and did a couple of other dozen things then remember this unfinished post but didn''t want to surprize with some big edits.
When I get called a science denier, as sombody that is dedicated to using authentic science and being objective, this could be seen as one heck of an insult. I am a scientist by profession.
However, I see it as sort of a general term used, over used and abused by one side that is not intentionally trying to single me out and make it personal..........just to lump me into this category that they have set aside for everybody that does not have the same belief system as them on climate change.
Nazi as used by many on the left, seems to be used in a similar vein.
I realize that we are all individuals with unique perceptions and feelings and what doesn't bother me, may be considered a horrific insult to somebody else.
With regards to the incident yesterday, the person using the insult, if they had intended for it to be personal and stay, they would not have apologized. If they had, instead insisted that it was a fact or would not recognize that it may have hurt the other person, my response would have been different.
One reason that I delayed getting back to this is that I really wanted to bring up a much more significant N word. The one used that we can all agree hurts black people a great deal............when used by a white person. Society tells us that its ok for black people to use that word when referring to other blacks though...........in fact, it is often used by blacks in a fond way of other blacks.
My son in law is black and that word does not bother him 1 iota. He says that its mainly just old white people that grew up in a world where it was frequently used..........over used and abused but also in a very personal, degrading way that intended to hurt at times.
His dad and I have had a discussion about this and just discussing the word will raise his blood pressure by double digits.
OK, I had just typed for another 15 minutes and the tab crashed........dang. MarketForum is telling me to stop being so wordy (-:
So the point is that the same word which causes one person to blow their top can be laughed off by another.
My personal opinion on the N word is that society dwells on it and puts that word into such a powerful category which CAUSES it to be continue to be so powerful and empowers racists who use it.
I am not denying the horrible atrocities and injustice of the past and the need to hold those today accountable for unacceptable actions and racial injustice.
But can we please stop allowing that word to be put up on a pedistole of power which provides racists with another tool(this one verbal) from the past to cause hurt.
We have come along way in most racial realms but with regards to the N word, have gone backwards. Society treating the N word this way is exactly what racists want.
If this word did not exist, what substitute word for it would they use?
Answer, there isn't another one like it.
Who uses it to hurt others? Answer, racists.
I know that the emotional hurt that a black person feels when hearing that word or being called that by a white person is real and understand that. Will this still be the case in 100 years? If not, then at what point do we decide that's just a dumb word used by ignorant, hateful people that we should ignore?
For a couple of years, I felt compelled to sort of express this belief opening/in public in conversations with other white people.........and I would use the N word like any other word during the conversation, not just the letter N. Jaws would drop open. I was not using it in a derogatory way but just saying the actual word, using it as a more casual way to be consistent with how I thought society should discuss it.
Probably caused the people around me stress, so I won't be doing that anymore.
"I'll finish in a minute." (Per your as-yet unfinished post following my 5:16 PM post.)
8:15 PM update: This is turning into one long-assed minute.
Before you finish in a minute, I want to make sure you understand that the last sentence in my 5:16 PM post today is intended as a somewhat self-effacing quip. I'm rather sure you've noted my opinions on the issue by now!
In some circles it is a standing rule if, during a discussion, you mention Hitler or Nazi you automatically lose.
I just chalk it off to someone who engages in excessive hyperbole.
Is that redundant ?
mcfarmer,
You are referring to Godwin's law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1."
"There are many corollaries to Godwin's law... For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that, when a Hitler comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever made the comparison loses whatever debate is in progress."