Posted on 06/20/2006 8:06:27 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
Why the left fears global warming more than the right
DENNIS PRAGER
Observers of contemporary society will surely have noted that a liberal is far more likely to fear global warming than a conservative. Why is this?
After all, if the science is as conclusive as Al Gore, Time, Newsweek, the New York Times and virtually every other spokesman of the left says it is, conservatives are just as likely to be scorched and drowned and otherwise done in by global warming as liberals will. So why aren't non-leftists nearly as exercised as leftists are? Do conservatives handle heat better? Are libertarians better swimmers? Do religious people love their children less?
The usual liberal responses – to label a conservative position racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic or the like – obviously don't apply here. So, liberals would have to fall back on the one remaining all-purpose liberal explanation: "big business." They might therefore explain the conservative-liberal divide over global warming thus: Conservatives don't care about global warming because they prefer corporate profits to saving the planet.
But such an explanation could not explain the vast majority of conservatives who are not in any way tied into the corporate world (like this writer, who has no stocks and who, moreover, regards big business as amoral as leftists do).
No, the usual liberal dismissals of conservatives and their positions just don't explain this particularly illuminating difference between liberals and conservatives.
Here are six more likely explanations:
1. The left is prone to hysteria. The belief that global warming will destroy the world is but one of many hysterical notions held on the left. As noted in a previous column devoted to the left and hysteria, many on the left have been hysterical about the dangers of the Patriot Act and the NSA surveillance of phone numbers (incipient fascism); secondhand smoke (killing vast numbers of people); drilling in the remotest area of Alaska (major environmental despoliation); and opposition to same-sex marriage (imminent Christian theocracy).
2. The left believes that if the New York Times and other liberal news sources report something, it is true. If the cover of Time magazine says, "Global Warming: Be Worried, Very Worried," liberals get worried, very worried, about global warming.
It is noteworthy that liberals, one of whose mottos is "question authority," so rarely question the authority of the mainstream media. Now, of course, conservatives, too, often believe mainstream media. But conservatives have other sources of news that enable them to achieve the liberal ideal of questioning authority. Whereas few liberals ever read non-liberal sources of information or listen to conservative talk radio, the great majority of conservatives are regularly exposed to liberal news, liberal editorials and liberal films, and they have also received many years of liberal education.
3. The left believes in experts. Of course, every rational person, liberal or conservative, trusts the expertise of experts – such as when experts in biology explain the workings of mitochondria, or when experts in astronomy describe the moons of Jupiter. But for liberals, "expert" has come to mean far more than greater knowledge in a given area. It now means two additional things: One is that non-experts should defer to experts not only on matters of knowledge, but on matters of policy, as well. The second is that experts possess greater wisdom about life, not merely greater knowledge in their area of expertise.
That is why liberals are far more likely to be impressed when a Nobel Prize winner in, let us say, physics signs an ad against war or against capital punishment. The liberal is bowled over by the title "Nobel laureate." The conservative is more likely to wonder why a Nobel laureate in physics has anything more meaningful to say about war than, let us say, a taxi driver.
4. People who don't confront the greatest evils will confront far lesser ones. Most humans know the world is morally disordered – and socially conscious humans therefore try to fight what they deem to be most responsible for that disorder. The right tends to fight human evil such as communism and Islamic totalitarianism. The left avoids confronting such evils and concentrates its attention instead on socioeconomic inequality, environmental problems and capitalism. Global warming meets all three of these criteria of evil. By burning fossil fuels, rich countries pollute more, the environment is being despoiled and big business increases its profits.
5. The left is far more likely to revere, even worship, nature. A threat to the environment is regarded by many on the left as a threat to what is most sacred to them, and therefore deemed to be the greatest threat humanity faces. The cover of Vanity Fair's recent "Special Green Issue" declared: "A Graver Threat Than Terrorism: Global Warming." Conservatives, more concerned with human evil, hold the very opposite view: Islamic terror is a far graver threat than global warming.
6. Leftists tend to fear dying more. That is one reason they are more exercised about our waging war against evil than about the evils committed by those we fight. The number of Iraqis and others Saddam Hussein murdered troubles the left considerably less than even the remote possibility than they may one day die of global warming (or secondhand smoke).
One day, our grandchildren may ask us what we did when Islamic fascism threatened the free world. Some of us will say we were preoccupied with fighting that threat wherever possible; others will be able to say they fought carbon dioxide emissions. One of us will look bad.
7. Leftists prefer to scare people then tax them.
I don't actually think leftists fear global warming as much as they resent seeing people living their lives without permission.
Leftism is, at bottom, rooted in envy. Not envy of wealth, there are a lot of wealthy leftists out there, but rather envy of accomplishment.
Beyond that, however, leftists see the world as a black box, a big unknown. If something goes wrong they wouldn't have a clue what to do about it, thus their desire to appoint a commission of very smart people to rule the world. Who knew leftists were feudalists at heart?
Conservatives tend to be do-ers. They know that, should the worst happen and the temperature goes up a degree and a half over the next 50 years, they'll figure something out. Turn up the air-conditioner, maybe. Something.
Conservative (Christians) believe in a sovereign God who controls the climate and sustains the Earth – liberals Atheists) believe it is all just the result of a random explosion and a quirk of chance.
Or lefties prefer to scare people and then fund raise (or tax people) so they can continue to get paid to work on "organizing" increased awareness of the scary problem.
You see, they don't score well in math and science and aren't athletic so they all got B.A. degrees in imaginary skills and this is the only way they can get a job that pays as much as a garbage man.
That's ridiculous, leftist philosphy, which is what liberals follow, is by nature both authoritarian and totalitarian. True, there are "liberals" who think they are for freedom, but the notable thing about them is their foolishness, not their mottos.
"The left is far more likely to revere, even worship, nature."
Ridiculous again - leftists don't give a damn about nature, they don't even understand it. It finds importance to them only because of their use of it as a political lever. OTOH, most of the rural folk of the red states and areas understand nature very well, and are far more likely to revere it than the citified blue staters.
I'm not too sure this author has his head screwed on very straight.
Gotta love this quote though: "It is noteworthy that liberals, one of whose mottos is "question authority," so rarely question the authority of the mainstream media."
Eggs act ly!
1. Global Warming Theory validates the fundamental belief of liberals that free market capitalism is evil, since an evil activity should have an evil result.
2. Global Warming Theory implies that the preferred strategy of Conservatives to address poverty--namely, to foster economic, techinical and scientific progress--would have unacceptable environmental consequences. As a consequence, it validates the Liberal desire to apply socialist solutions.
(A similar problem for many Liberals would be for example the role of religion in American Society, and they have a similar aversion to thinking about it above the level of reflexive avoidance).
I don't think that's going to last, though – for instnace the slope of the curve of atmospheric CO2 concentrations likely portends some quite unpleasant consequences – and IMO you are going to see some interesting political alliances - both domestic and international - as a result.
Let me summarize:
1. Liberals think with their emotions more than their mind.
2. Liberals are undiscerning and gullible.
3. Liberals are undiscerning and gullible.
4. Liberals fight windmills to ease their conscience for failing to stand against the real issues.
5. Liberals are so obsessed with the environment that they're blind to such serious threats as terrorists.
6. Liberals are pu****s who cave in easily to criminals who threaten to kill them. Plus, they're naive enough to hope that caving in will save them.
If they weren't so Godless they be saying, "God will punish you for be a capitalist".
5. The left is far more likely to revere, even worship, nature. A threat to the environment is regarded by many on the left as a threat to what is most sacred to them, and therefore deemed to be the greatest threat humanity faces. The cover of Vanity Fair's recent "Special Green Issue" declared: "A Graver Threat Than Terrorism: Global Warming." Conservatives, more concerned with human evil, hold the very opposite view: Islamic terror is a far graver threat than global warming.
It has been my lifelong experience that the vast majority of real outdoorsmen (and women) are conservatives, think; hunters, anglers, etc. Whereas liberals seem to be city folks with no real sense of the outdoors and are only seen in the boondocks with loads of the latest hydrating (I use a canteen myself) or climbing gear as seen in "Backpacking Magazine."
Liberals have many qualities and all have been discussed here at one time or another. One of the most prominant ones is as your statement suggests - they don't trust people to act in a manner the liberals want. Therefore, they must be made to conform to liberal whims by the government. To insure liberal happiness, liberals must control the government and government must have complete control over the people.
As usual, WorldNutDaily misses the full scope of the debate. It's no longer so much about "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" but about what the cause of it is. The mere fact that we have climate change does not mean we should change our course of action. (I.e., if it's not caused/triggered by our actions, then stopping our economy will simply hinder our ability to adapt to it.)
7. Leftists realize that scaring people about global warming is one of their few remaining paths to get people to let them run the economy. They lust for the power to say who gets what and in what amounts.
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