Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Krugman and Mann on climate change denial

See this post. While he thinks that vested interests play a role in this he thinks ideology and anti-intellectualism are more significant. The ideology is Ayn Randian, with libertarian self interest the main driver. Climate change challenges that notion by providing evidence that unrestricted self interest is causing an environmental calamity. Combine that with their anti-intellectualism and the only response to scientific fact is that the latter must be involved in a vast left-wing conspiracy to destroy capitalism.

Michael Mann's post though thinks Krugman goes to easy on the vested interests, which are inextricably linked to the aforementioned ideology.
The Kochs and others have spent vast sums of $ in climate denial orgs like Americans For Prosperity, the Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, all part of the denial machine. It plays a huge role in funding the echo chamber throughout regressive media claiming it's all a socialist plot to destroy capitalism. And all that payola repeatedly reinforces the deception to an unsuspecting, ill-informed audience, principally so that the polluters can keep reaping in the profits by raping our natural resources.

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