"Climate change really is a profound threat to a great
many things that right-wing ideologues believe in."

From Democracy Now:

NAOMI KLEIN: But something very different is going on on the right, and I think we need to understand what that is. Why is climate change seen as such a threat? I don’t believe it’s an unreasonable fear. I think it is—it’s unreasonable to believe that scientists are making up the science. They’re not. It’s not a hoax. But actually, climate change really is a profound threat to a great many things that right-wing ideologues believe in. So, in fact, if you really wrestle with the implications of the science and what real climate action would mean, here’s just a few examples what it would mean.

Well, it would mean upending the whole free trade agenda, because it would mean that we would have to localize our economies, because we have the most energy-inefficient trade system that you could imagine. And this is the legacy of the free trade era. So, this has been a signature policy of the right, pushing globalization and free trade. That would have to be reversed.

You would have to deal with inequality. You would have to redistribute wealth, because this is a crisis that was created in the North, and the effects are being felt in the South. So, on the most basic, basic, "you broke it, you bought it," polluter pays, you would have to redistribute wealth, which is also against their ideology.

You would have to regulate corporations. You simply would have to. I mean, any serious climate action has to intervene in the economy. You would have to subsidize renewable energy, which also breaks their worldview.

You would have to have a really strong United Nations, because individual countries can’t do this alone. You absolutely have to have a strong international architecture.

Watch, read, or listen to the rest here.

It really is amazing, isn't it? Global warming, caused by human industrial activity, has been long established as a scientific fact, but conservatives totally reject it. And they're extraordinarily desperate about it. I mean, they speak in terms of belief, even though belief is something that you do with Santa Claus or God, not scientifically verified aspects of material reality. And almost everybody who uses the term "conservative" as a self-identifying moniker, from true blue Movement Conservatives, to Libertarians, to fundamentalist Christians, to neoliberals, to just plain old Republicans, has adopted this point of view.

Communicating with these people on this topic is not too far from trying to get a caveman to understand that fire isn't magic or the Sun isn't a god. Seriously. Really intelligent people go into intense contortions of logic, or cite the obscure dissenting minority of scientists quoted in the National Review, or engage in wild conspiracy theory, in order to make themselves comfortable with the fact that they are essentially insisting that the world is flat. Conservatives are simply not rational on this issue, which is an enormous drag because, given the political power the right wing wields these days, it will probably mean the eventual destruction of human civilization.

It's been pretty obvious for years now that the real reason conservatives are such weird psychos on global warming is that it means their entire understanding of human relationships is wrong. Just plain wrong. And they don't have the balls to admit it, even to themselves. Caught between reality and their false "beliefs," the right wing has descended into deep, deep denial, which makes them behave and speak in increasingly bizarre and irrational ways.

Ever wonder why President Obama, a neoliberal conservative Democrat, has been branded an infinite number of times as a socialist? I don't think global warming is the only factor at work in this strange phenomenon, but it definitely plays a role: conservatives feel the concept of climate change breathing down their necks, and it's making them crazy. I mean, literally. Like, Obama's a fucking socialist? Yeah, right.

I really have no idea how to deal with this problem. What do you do when the guy you're arguing with is an arrogant asshole insisting that day is night, black is white, and up is down? But I do know what I'm going to do. No more arguments about whether climate change is happening, no more arguments about whether it's man made. This is all about irrational emotion for conservatives, so I'm going to give them some of their own authoritarian medicine. The next time I hear some right-wing ideologue bashing the notion of global warming, I'm calling him a fucking idiot. No explanation. No discussion. I'm calling him a primitive piece of shit who's trying to kill us all.

I mean, that's about as substantive as their "arguments" debunking climate change are, right? Let's see what happens when irresistible force meets unmovable object. At the very least, it ought to be fun and gratifying.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$