Paul Krugman - Republicans And Climate Denial Denial

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EDIT

By rights, then, the 2016 election should be seen as a referendum on that extremism. But it probably won’t be reported that way. Which brings me to what you might call the problem of climate denial denial.

Some of this denial comes from moderate Republicans, who do still exist — just not in elected office. These moderates may admit that their party has gone off the deep end on the climate issue, but they tend to argue that it won’t last, that the party will start talking sense any day now. (And they will, of course, find reasons to support whatever climate-denier the G.O.P. nominates for president.) Everything we know about the process that brought Republicans to this point says that this is pure fantasy. But it’s a fantasy that will cloud public perception.

More important, probably, is the denial inherent in the conventions of political journalism, which say that you must always portray the parties as symmetric — that any report on extreme positions taken by one side must be framed in a way that makes it sound as if both sides do it. We saw this on budget issues, where some self-proclaimed centrist commentators, while criticizing Republicans for their absolute refusal to consider tax hikes, also made a point of criticizing President Obama for opposing spending cuts that he actually supported. My guess is that climate disputes will receive the same treatment.

But I hope I’m wrong, and I’d urge everyone outside the climate-denial bubble to frankly acknowledge the awesome, terrifying reality. We’re looking at a party that has turned its back on science at a time when doing so puts the very future of civilization at risk. That’s the truth, and it needs to be faced head-on.

EDIT/END

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/opinion/republicans-climate-change-denial-denial.html?_r=0

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1. A comment by Paul G Knox from Philadelphia.

Conservatives love the concept of American Exceptionalism.

They throw the term around as they do Freedom and Liberty. The problem is these terms when wielded by conservatives are nothing but hollow, empty buzzwords. They've become dog whistles unto themselves to motivate the rabid base to vote against their own interests and any measures supporting the common good.

In GOP world the American Exceptionalism boast hides a less than enlightened and pedestrian embrace of junk science, prohibitely expensive healthcare, unprecedented proliferation of firearms, attacks on women's reproductive rights, weak environmental protections,attacks on voting rights, animosity towards LGBT equality, antipathy and hostility towards unions and working people in general, an inappropriate and untoward aggression of Christianity foisted in the public sphere.

American Exceptionalism, as well as Liberty and Freedom , mouthed by conservatives is nothing but Orwellian language and lip service to mask the fact that we are not exceptional at all. Unless supbar and less than our peer countries across the globe is what their definition entails.

Posted without comment. None necessary.

[emmadoggy]

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