The True Believers

My recent post on Mark Haartsgaard was picked up on dailycaller.com, so I'm now getting unindated with all kinds of rude people. Almost all of them are afraid to use their real identity, of course, like "bigc" who won't even show a Blogger profile. He writes:

Let's face it - the whole man-made global warming movement has been thoroughly discredited, and is in the final stages of its lifecycle.

I honestly don't know how anyone reaches such a conclusion, except that they must only read web sites that agree with their preconceived notions and avoid all discussions of the science. Because the truth is that there is absolutely no doubt in scientific circles about the reality of a human influence on climate, for anyone who reads science journals or follows science journalism, and this is getting stronger all the time (and has been for at least two decades now).

There is something going on here beyond science and beyond advocacy and far beyond politics. It is a denial of rationality itself, of the scientific method that has so benefited our civilization for the last 400 years, and of intellectualism.

I think Paul Krugman had a good point the other day: many people now think that to be a "conservative" they must now adhere to certain beliefs no matter what supports them. It's gotten to the point where it might really be a matter of mass delusion, something like Eric Hoffer wrote about in The True Believer -- Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, which you should read if you haven't. Because we are beyond logical thinking here, and that is very, very dangerous territory.

For example, why would any intelligent group of leaders vote to deny the ability of a government agency (who is using the best science of its time) to protect its present and (esp) future citizens. It defies sense. It's almost suicidal. But that's where now at.