Tom Morris

A conversation with a denialist

You scientists are just closed minded about the possibility that climate change might not be happening.

No, we aren’t. I’m happy to debate anyone who has looked at the facts in detail and come to the opposite conclusion.

Okay, I’m a guy with a classics degree and I like to swan around claiming I’m a member of the House of Lords. Do I count?

Not really. I mean a scientist. Someone with some expertise in the topic.

Oh yes, they exist. I’ve got a whole list of them.

Great! Who are they then?

Well, I can’t tell you.

Why on earth not?

Because if I did tell you the people who disagree with you, you’d just persecute them.

What are you on about?

Yeah, because you are closed-minded, I can’t tell you about any of the people who disagree with you because if you knew who they were, you’d persecute them for not agreeing with you.

Okay. Isn’t there a simpler explanation though? Might it just be that there are no credentialed experts who really disagree with the general consensus on climate change? I mean, Occam’s Razor and all that - a list I cannot see because I might be nasty to them is pretty much equivalent to a list with nobody on it, right?

See! You are still being closed minded.

How could I not be closed minded?

Well, you could agree with me…

And why should I do that? Perhaps you could present me with someone with the relevant scientific expertise who can argue for the conclusion you seek to establish?

Yeah, but if I did that, you’d just persecute them because you are a big meanie.

The camera pans down rapidly as the cameraman suddenly loses the will to live.

Station Approach, Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1

Adam Tinworth is right about iPad magazines. I can’t see the appeal: Instapaper, Reeder and a whole stack of books keeps my attention much better than silly magazine apps. But I’m apparently not in the mainstream reading public, or something.

Station Approach, Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1

Hey, you, American readers. Stop what you are doing and read Eric Alterman’s Kabuki Democracy article. It is utterly depressing. And it should bloody well prompt you into action.

Also, go read The New York Review of Books on Prince Charles. I have mixed feelings about Charlie boy. He’s a twat, yes, but he is the best argument for republicanism. When Elizabeth dies, so with her British monarchism dies. And good bloody riddance.

Frank Field must be having a field day. If you were a Labour MP who got appointed to dream up policies for Dave and Nick, what would you do? Suggest they create a GCSE in Parenting? That is pretty bonkers. It’ll be fun to see if Call Me Dave actually goes through with this.

Der Spiegel has an article that debunks the whole “digital native” bullshit that has been going on for far too long. Citizenship of the Internet - if that is the metaphor we wish to use - is defined by ability and knowledge, not age. Get me a bunch of middle-aged programmers who sling HTTP, XML, JSON, Ruby and Java around like spaghetti at a food fight and they’ll bloody well show the kids who click on to Facebook for a few minutes during morning break what for.

Jeremy Stangroom’s article on punishment and philosophical attempts to justify retribution is well worth reading.