Discussion for article #222637
It’s worse than Oliver indicates. Cable news finds a variety of people (I wouldn’t call them scientists) who deny climate change, and had a kiddie show host supporting it.
7 Likes
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry; this is such an accurate reflection of the consensus, that it makes a laughing stock of any of the “debates” being held in the corporate media. On the other hand, it is sobering that, indeed, this is the scientific consensus and that we are doing absolutely nothing.
16 Likes
The nature of the “debate” may be depressing, but it’s not a surprise. The “skeptics” all belong to the political party that is controlled by men and women who believe the Bible is the literal word of God, that evolution is a Satanic fraud, and that the science of embryology is “from the pit of Hell.” The Republican Party has now become the de facto anti-science/anti-education party because it’s a theocratic party.
9 Likes
I would like some input here. My supposition is that adults who regularly watch FOX (other than those on reconnaisance) are permanently converted to Reactionary, Right Wing Ideology.
I mean Permanently.
I base this on having read thousands of posts, having discussions (if you call it that) with hundreds of people and, finally, noting the age of those who usually watch FOX news.
If my supposition is correct, a change in strategy is in order. If, in fact, these people are impossible to sway, then talking to them (electronically or out loud) is more devil’s advocate fun than anything else. If my supposition is correct, we need to concentrate on what WE can do to combat these people at the voting booth. [because, if we do not, the same brain-dead people who deny Climate Change will always hold political sway and effect disastrous policies].
So I will ask…“Is FOX impossible to escape from, once one has accepted the propaganda?”
2 Likes
Why does it take years for a correct analysis of the media’s distortion of this issue to finally appear on the tube. Thank you Mr. Oliver. Well done.
7 Likes
I think for most FOX viewers that’d be true. Very few are there seeking impartial information so they can understand and find rational solutions to complex problems. They want reinforcement for a simplistic world view, and they want horror-show-style entertainment about the big bad liberal boogeypersons. I know Republicans who still believe the radicals are just one element of the right. They’re the ones you can talk to. But there are fewer of them than there used to be. The sensible conservatives have given up and think the Republicans need to spend forty years in the desert before they come to their senses. So yeah, electoral change is where to put the effort, for as long as we’re still a democracy. : )
7 Likes
was sitting at a table full of guys this weekend with one, a medical Dr., spouting off all the Rush talking points about why climate change is not real or at least not man made. Interesting that someone that studied and depends on reliable science to help him do his job can throw out science in another area and feel like he’s an expert on something he has no training in just by reiterating talking points. One of the talking points was that funding for studies to prove CC became much easier to get because of Gore’s promotion of it. That had to be the dumbest point of all. The oil/gas industry has to have much more money available to spend on bias research than who ever he thinks wants to prove CC! How can such smart people that won’t be hurt one way or the other monetarily buy so fully into Rush’s BS?
6 Likes
FoxNews is essentially a gigantic media enterprise devoted to confirmation bias. Conservatives and Republicans desperately want to believe that Barack Obama eats Christians babies while reading the Koran, that Democrats are heroin addicts peddling kiddie porn to pay for their gay marriages, and that progressives are all dreamy potheads who lie around all day having sex with Communists and Islamic radicals. They will ignore any and all evidence to the contrary.
The way to combat their malign influence on our political landscape is to persuade the Democratic base to get off its butt and vote in midterm elections and in statewide elections.
4 Likes
I am still interested in lots of people weighing in on my original question, like you and MattinPA. However, I am gratified that both of you have expressed the idea that voting is essential.
To be sure, playing with trolls and other assorted Baggers can be fun, if for no other reason that it recreates some of the roughouse humour one experiences at the barber shop, on the road in bands or in Basic Training, when one encounters mind-blowing opinions from otherwise sane people. But when the computer is turned off and one walks out the door, there should be more effort in trying to energize and mobilize others to vote, at this very crucial time for our nation.
2 Likes
On the first episode of “Years of Living Dangerously” one comment struck me as very true. Christian climate change deniers were afraid that if they accepted man made climate change that would automatically make them Obama supporters. Many cannot see that they can accept climate change and still be republicans/conservatives. Political polarization is a big barrier.
3 Likes
The median age of Fox News’s viewership is 68 years. I think a lot of the permanence you’re describing is the result of age-related mental deterioration.
Moreover, I get the impression that, no snark, no joke, a lot of our right-wing brethren have genuine mental problems (including dementia, as described above).
These are people who have spent the last 6 years debating whether the President of the United States was born in Kenya–and that’s not counting the ones who believe he’s the literal Anti-Christ. They believe they need to maintain arsenals in their homes in case they have to single-handedly fight the US Armed Forces, Red Dawn-style. They believe that 97% of the scientists on this planet are engaged in a giant conspiracy to milk them for grant funding. And then there’s their xenophobia, their terror of modern life, and their overweening obsession with other people’s sex lives.
Hello, these are NOT conservative values.
They are insane values that are marketed as “conservative,” to people who identify as “conservative” because they’re so weak-minded that they (a) actually swallowed that “Liberals are icky” shtick the Right has been peddling all these years to cover their lack of real arguments against us; and (b) can’t process what it means to be a conservative on any level deeper than supporting whatever they’re told liberals oppose and vice versa.
As a result, their positions aren’t conservative in any independent sense–rather, they’re the progressive Bizarro World.
8 Likes
it recreates some of the roughouse humour one experiences at the barber shop, on the road in bands or in Basic Training…
So, emiliano, I’m guessing that you value pretty much all-male, all-the-time opinion?
In answer to your question though, yes, I do think True Fox Fans are beyond reason and/or redemption. There is nothing that will change their minds. Remember the recent study on anti-vaxxers which concluded that no amount of reason would cause them to change their views on the Evils of Vaccinations? Fox fans are like that. The only solution is at the ballot box. The larger population has to carry on the sane while refusing to grant the reactionaries a serious place in the discussion.
Sadly, this is becoming an issue we have to deal with as a nation.
Epic!
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve conversed with co-workers who are masters of the kind of logical thought that it takes to write and fix computer programs – and yet spout right-wing talking points and anti-union propaganda as if it were facts.
1 Like
In this case, it has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with money. A tiny handful of people are getting rich by poisoning the planet, and they use their deep pockets to dupe people into supporting them.
2 Likes
Amen, brother!
2 Likes
If we want to do something about the skeptics on climate change we have to change the electorate, but there is a problem. Fox News isn’t the only media outlet misleading the electorate. If you drive throughout the U.S., particularly the south and mid-west, you will find talk radio stations owned and managed by the far right that cater to the evangelical. That has enabled the gerrymandering that carves out the advantages on voting rights. What does that have to do with climate theory? The Koch brothers and their ilk control much of the debate. Talk radio is not fair and balanced nor is their a counter point to their outright lies that would jeopardize their profits. They have flourished during the Obama administration due prejudice for black, hispanic and any people of color.
So if there must be a debate on climate science, Oliver said there’s only one mathematically fair way to go about it – packing three climate skeptics, Bill Nye and 96 other scientists into a room and then seeing which group drowns out the other.
When those in control of the “science” moneys pack they ranks with people who are not willing to question their leaders but are only able to follow suit, of course that “math” will favor the 96%. It is the same as at the time of Galileo, only then the “math” was 99% of “scientists” were scientifically certain the Earth was flat and those against that “science” were systematically burned at the stake. Thus the 99% certainty.