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Ktb

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Denialism News
« on: April 19, 2020, 03:34:45 PM »
For noteworthy news of prominent climate change deniers, skeptics, and others. Additionally for updates on the strategies they employ and tactics they use.

I force myself to stay up to date on the latest anti-science rhetoric that is used regularly to prepare for my dad to inevitably bring up. I like to be ready to combat the bullshit.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2020, 03:42:57 PM by Ktb »
And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now.
- Ishmael

Ktb

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Re: Denialism News
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2020, 03:35:27 PM »
Dr. Siegfried Fred Singer, noted climate denier has passed away at the age of 95. 

Quote
Singer was one of the "merchants of doubt" identified by NCSE board member Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway in their Merchants of Doubt (2010): a handful of scientists who "joined forces with think tanks and private corporations to challenge scientific evidence on a host of contemporary issues" including tobacco, the Strategic Defense Initiative, acid rain, ozone depletion, and, of course, climate change.

https://ncse.ngo/s-fred-singer-physicist-and-influential-climate-change-denier-dies-95


Human taboo generally frowns upon talking ill of the dead, that being said, good riddance.
And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now.
- Ishmael

Neven

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Re: Denialism News
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2020, 03:45:23 PM »
Quote
Human taboo generally frowns upon talking ill of the dead, that being said, good riddance.

That's the central theme of this piece by Paul Thacker:

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Fred Singer Has Passed. He Took Pleasure In Bullying Scientists. May He Rest.

­Why speak well of the late climate denier Fred Singer, who spent over half a century attacking credible science and scientists?

(...)

I regret the day when I ran into Singer in person and didn’t walk over and throw something at him. One summer morning in Washington, I took some friends across town to the Eastern Market neighborhood for brunch at Montmartre, a neighborhood treasure of Parisian flair and simple-yet-amazing French food, amid D.C.’s oversupply of high-priced French restaurants with mediocre dishes (which thrive in the city because lawyers can expense these meals to clients.) Halfway through my ham and cheese omelette with mustard crème, I looked across the restaurant and recoiled as if slapped. Seated two tables away was Fred Singer. Putting my fork down, I told my friends why I was no longer hungry. 

They say you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but I spoke ill of Singer that day, and I feel no need to stop just because the bastard doesn’t breathe. What I saw that day was the face of evil, a detestable animal shoveling fine food into his fanged maw. Many have said to me in private that they also found him evil. That’s why evil persists: because too many fear risking the high salaries that pay for nice meals at French restaurants by speaking up in public. I would prefer to eat bologna sandwiches on stale bread and preserve my dignity. 

As writer Anne Lamott once noted, “If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

Today there's a generation of young people coming into adulthood completely pissed off and frightened (for good cause) that because of people like Singer, we have done next to nothing to halt global warming. It’s true that others who are still alive have also done horrible things to protect the fossil fuel industry. But having studied Singer closely for years, I know that he did this not just for a paycheck. He did it with wild abandon and joy, and delighted in his power to frighten and cow those who tried to point out that he was wrong.

At this point in an obituary, I am supposed to pivot into a few paragraphs on the person’s history — home town, college degrees, career accomplishments, marriages and divorces — before ending with survivors.

But when it comes to someone like Singer, who really cares about these details? Nobody watches the History Channel to discover that Pol Pot’s first wife was named Khieu Ponnary, reads a book on sex offender Harvey Weinstein to learn about his childhood growing up in Queens, or turns to the news to learn that Donald Trump attended business school at Wharton instead of Stanford. It’s not relevant.

More important than reciting someone’s resume, is painting a portrait for readers of the deep emotions that person stirred within others. Capturing the essence of the deceased. So here goes: 

Fred Singer was the beast whose name must not be said. He was the mad fantasy of corporate lawyers who, catching a glimpse of a harvest moon, tear off their ties and rip apart their clothing to release their inner werewolves. Howling with mad money glee, they leap from oak-paneled boardrooms with gold-coffered ceilings to run naked through the heartland of America, shitting nuclear waste in town squares. They pollute the air with foul breath, poison streams with toxic sweat — causing death, destruction, and horrifying economic misery — before ending the night’s orgy with a scrumptious dessert of fat little toddlers, roasted beneath a UV lamp.

The dead do not read. Obituaries are written for the living. Fred Singer is survived by 7.5 billion inhabitants of our planet, which is being destroyed by global warming.
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

TerryM

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Re: Denialism News
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2020, 02:25:48 AM »
He was a vile despicable cad and he revelled in being wrong. Millions live lives made poorer by of the lies he told.
From Big Tobacco to Big Oil there was never a product so loathsome that Singer wouldn't shill for it - for a price.


The world became a better place with his passing.
Terry

vox_mundi

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Re: Denialism News
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2020, 07:46:11 PM »
If your waiting to piss on his grave, remember - maintain social distance.  8)
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

KiwiGriff

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Re: Denialism News
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2020, 08:49:24 PM »
Another one to wee on.  :o
Professor Nils-Axel Mörner, 1938-2020.
https://archive.is/F0A4B#selection-563.0-563.37

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

― Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers
Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.
Notebooks of Lazarus Long.
Robert Heinlein.