WHY YOU PISS US OFF ON GLOBAL WARMING

A comment I left on a facebook discussion thread:

When you say something like this, "I don't buy it. Funny that is was global warming but when they figured it was not really warming like they thought they changed the name to 'change' I think the hypocrisy is laughable," which you said above, you're effectively demonstrating for pretty much everybody that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about on this issue, and, at the same time, disqualify yourself from having an opinion worth taking seriously.

That is, it's still global warming. That never changed at all. Indeed, global warming is what causes the climate change. While slightly different in meaning, cause for one, effect for the other, we're essentially talking about the same thing with both phrases, using different emphases. I thought it was a bad idea to bring the newer phrase into the political debate for fear it would cause the same kind of confusion you're displaying here. But I'm not in charge of such things, so I didn't get a vote.

But the point is that you clearly have done absolutely no legitimate reading on the subject or you would have never made that really silly assertion. I highly recommend that you bone up on this stuff, if only for your own credibility in these discussions, or no one will take you seriously at all.

More generally, however, the reason conservative views on global warming are so frustrating to liberals is because it's settled science. We might as well be debating whether sodium and chlorine in the right amounts create table salt. So to deny global warming, climate change, whatever, is to say you don't think the scientific method is a good way to understand physical reality. I mean, conservatives don't admit this, but they don't need to do so.

So when a conservative denies global warming, it's just laughable, or stunning, or infuriating. Because conservatives are just plain wrong. There is no debate about this. The only reason conservatives deny it is because it casts doubt on a lot of stuff they believe otherwise, capitalism, certain fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible, etc. And everybody knows this. Even conservatives. But the conservatives can't or won't admit it to themselves because they have too much to lose if they do so.

So forgive liberals' hostility on this. You guys really are testing people's patience when you expect everyone to do the equivalent of believing in unicorns.

Excelsior!

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