Confronted by Stahl with the fact some prominent people, including the nation’s vice president, are not convinced that global warming is man-made, Gore responds: "You're talking about Dick Cheney. I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view, they’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat,” says Gore. "That demeans them a little bit, but it's not that far off," he tells Stahl.
Let's see --- it seems that Joseph Goebbels had a few things to say about that:
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over
Intellectual activity is a danger to the building of character
Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.
It appears that after earning a C+ average and washing out of both law school and divinity school, Prince Albert has finally found his calling. After studying his teachings well and thoroughly, he has finally become a world-class propagandist every bit as skilled as Goebbels. Plus, he's gone Goebbels one better. Al has figured out how to use his talent to turn a tidy profit (net worth over $100 million at last count) and, who knows, perhaps even to emerge as a compromise presidential candidate after Barack and Hillary have obliterated each other.
UPDATE: Well, whaddaya know! The LA Times just ran a post on their "Top of the Ticket" blog by Andrew Malcolm and Mark Silva predicting exactly that: It's solved! Democratic race prediction: Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will win. The post drew several excellent comments, too. These were particularly astute:
Flat earthers? A tiny, tiny minority? How ignorant are we, actual scientists with degrees more advanced than Mr. Gore, who dare to objectively examine conflicting data and come to different conclusions?
Does Algore not read the news, or is he just so isolated and deluded that he has no view of the outside world?
Many, many people are skeptical about global warming, and there is growing evidence that the earth isn't warming, and if it is, man is not the cause.
Algore's entire life and legacy are consumed with global warming. In an absolute vacuum of objectivity, he witch hunts those who dare to disagree with him. One cannont have an honest opinion that disagrees with him and not be treated as a liar and/or an idiot.
Remember this: in the late 18th century, the brightest scientific minds believed that blood letting was the standard of care for most ilnesses. George Washington died this way. Metaphysicial certitude is dangerous in science.
It is my belief that the global warming issue will appear very differently by the end of the year. Algore's carbon credit interests will be exposed for the scam that they are, and he will go down in infamy.
The end will be brutal, swift, and unsympathetic.
Posted by: Thomas | March 28, 2008 at 07:35 AM
and
The sad thing is how behind-the-times this is.
Global Warming is already nigh-on-destroyed among climate scientists. It is, as usual, the politically activist scientists of other disciplines, and the politicians, and the media who aren't keeping up.
Amongst the contentions proven false in the last year or two are:
(1.) We're still getting warmer. (Nope. Actually we've been cooling almost a decade now.)
(2.) A positive feedback effect will escalate the effects of carbon. (Nope. Turns out there's a negative effect that's causing warming from carbon to taper off.)
(3.) Carbon is a leading indicator. (Not sure, but good evidence shows it may be a trailing indicator.)
(4.) It is economically feasible to implement carbon reduction and sequestration. (Nope. Would probably lead to millions of deaths from increased poverty, compared to a normal economic growth model.)
(5.) Implementing carbon reduction and sequestration would make a worthwhile difference in the amount of warming. (Well, that's half-true. *If* the worst-case models are true, then there's no way it would make enough difference to matter. On the other hand, if the not-so-bad models are true, it could make a difference...but then, if the not-so-bad models are true, the costs of doing anything outweigh the costs of doing nothing -- see #4, above.)
(6.) There's no greater threat, especially to poor societies. (Nope. It's near the bottom of the list, long after poverty and disease and illiteracy and lack of infrastructure and....)
We already know all this. It is old news.
About six months from now, the wiser politicians will finally catch on and conspicuously start talking about other things. About the same time, the mainstream media will start to catch on and publish/show pieces about all of the above ("for balance"). This (recall how the Iraq war was covered, early-on and later) is how they prepare the field for a change of narrative, you see.
Six months (a year, tops) later the media will have switched horses entirely and will be lampooning the few not-so-wise politicians who're still talking about it.
And three years from now, Al Gore will be talked about like that crazy uncle you have who prepared for Y2K by converting his house to propane and stocking up on guns and canned vegetables. A few years from that, his name will show up in a new 35th anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit.
Meanwhile, climate scientists can get back to doing climate research, like they used to, instead of being constantly interrupted to offer quotes for U.N. bureaucrats to take out-of-context.
I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it.
Posted by: R.C. | March 28, 2008 at 04:39 PM
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