Back when I was a kid, critical reasoning was described as a fundamental skill. We were given statistics in the classroom on the truth of newspaper and television news reports, demonstrating absolutely that you cannot take the truth of what you read and hear for granted. If we really wanted to understand anything rather than being fooled, it was up to us to find the facts and think for ourselves.
Today’s schools present political propaganda films like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, “skeptics†are described as evil beings out to destroy the earth, and students are routinely punished for questioning global warming orthodoxy – whichever version of it is currently in the hands of their teachers. Tens of billions of dollars have been spent on fake science, scientists and bureaucrats have been punished for questioning it, and media moguls have delighted in hyping it. It’s yet another in a continuously growing list of case studies in Big Lie politics.
The good news is that surveys have shown a strong trend toward public understanding that climate change is not controlled by human activity (two-thirds); although more rapidly among voters generally than in what Rasmussen describes as the Political Class. A majority believes that the media over-hypes problems related to climate change and even more are unwilling to support higher taxes and utility costs in response to fear tactics. About half the public attributes climate change to specific natural causes. (A higher number did not attribute global warming to human activity: Some respondents weren’t sure or believed the specific cause was not among those offered in the survey (7%).)
We cannot however, simply bask in the wisdom of the elders; awaiting the release of children from the indoctrination pits for deprogramming. Forty percent of U.S. voters still think that global warming is a very serious problem. Only 42% understand that the “historic†climate change bill that recently passed the House will hurt the U.S. economy. Moreover, Rasmussen’s surveys show alignment between views expressed by the Political Class and their supporters, Democratic Party voters (who still seem to think that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant along with dihydrogen monoxide). The strongest movement toward reality is among Republicans. One might argue cause and effect in this relationship either way, but I believe the evidence more likely indicates polarized following than an upswing in independent study and critical thinking.
As recently as a year ago, statistics on public beliefs about global warming were reversed. About half the public believed human activity had been the primary cause of global warming, while only a third believed that climate change is a natural phenomenon. Even the improved statistics are not a glowing demonstration of human intelligence, but back then half the public believed that nature is controlled by government policy. This is surely a gleaming demonstration of human stupidity. We must at once understand all of the evil political movements of history, the plague of human prejudice, long-standing geopolitical conflict, the effective demise of the American Bill of Rights, among other things. A population can be led, no matter how outrageous the claims being made to lead them. In the midst of the global warming hoax, we have seen incontrovertible evidence of the ease with which at least some followers are driven to fanaticism in support of a purely manipulative cause.
If I may hazard a small number of sweeping statements about the desires of the vast majority of humans throughout the world; we want to live in peace, support our basic needs, enjoy freedom, and avoid constant manipulation and theft by those seeking power. I must mourn the fact that on the whole, we humans do not appear smart enough to just do it.
Roger F. Gay developed an expert understanding of Big Lie politics while analyzing “deadbeat dad†propaganda in the 1990s, which was part of a political movement that ultimately brought the legal destruction of marriage and effectively ended individual rights in the United States.
