Climate Stalinism

City Journal ^ | October 25, 2019 | Joel Kotkin

[karpov]

The Left’s fixation on climate change is cloaked in scientism, deploying computer models to create the illusion of certainty. Ever more convinced of their role as planetary saviors, radical greens are increasingly intolerant of dissent or any questioning of their policy agenda. They embrace a sort of “soft Stalinism,” driven by a determination to remake society, whether people want it or not—and their draconian views are penetrating the mainstream. “Democracy,” a writer for Foreign Policy suggests, constitutes “the planet’s biggest enemy.”

Today’s working and middle classes are skeptical about policies that undermine their livelihoods in the promise of distant policy goals. Even now, after a decade-long barrage of fear-mongering, a majority of Americans, Australians, and even Europeans doubt that climate change will affect their lives substantially. A recent UN survey of 10 million people found that climate change ranked 16th in concerns; most people in the developing world, notes environmental economist Bjorn Lonborg, “care about their kids not dying from easily curable diseases, getting a decent education, not starving to death.”

Like other people in high-income countries, most Americans want to improve the environment and many, if not most, are concerned about the potential impact of climate change. But they still rank climate as only their 11th leading concern, behind not just health care and the economy but also immigration, guns, women’s rights, the Supreme Court, taxes, income, and trade. A recent Harris-Harvard poll found that three-fifths of Americans reject the portfolio of Green New Deal policies, including a third of Democrats and half of people under 25.

Simply put, once the current green agenda is understood in terms of its impact on jobs and energy prices, it does not play well. In recent Australian elections, voters soundly rejected a progressive agenda that targeted suburban residents

[mjp]

The Left’s fixation on climate change is cloaked in scientism, deploying computer models to create the illusion of certainty.

environmentalism is a useful myth/social construct for leftards to oppress/control the masses with force

[Tax-chick]

Though cast by the media as heroic outsiders, greens have historically clustered in elite academic, nonprofit, media, and corporate sectors.

Of course.

[newfreep]

The green agenda is like a watermelon - green on the outside and communist red on the inside.

[exDemMom]

There is true environmentalism that is concerned with reducing pollution, not spreading trash all over, preventing the spread of invasive species, etc. Then there is pseudo environmentalism, which seeks to control people’s lives and implements dangerous carbon removal schemes that pose an existential threat to all life on earth. (No carbon, no life.)

I became aware of the true agenda of pseudo environmentalists when my mother gave me a book on “living green.” The book had very little advice on how to actually reduce pollution, but it was full of ideas on how to reduce one’s standard of living. Whereas any observant person might note that people who have lower standards of living typically live in the most polluted environments. Thus, to improve the environment, it is necessary to encourage economic development.

[headstamp 2]

The left corrupts everything it touches and turns it into a method to forward an overriding political agenda.

[spintreebob]

computer models to create the illusion of certainty

this occurs in a lot more than just climate change. The fact is that it is impossible to state a fact about the future. We can only state probabilities. And even those probabilities are probabilities and not facts.

This is true of the future of Trump, the future of the Democrat wannabes, the future of big corporations and of small ones.

Notice which fact check organizations try to fact check a statement about the future. That is an instant tipoff that that alleged fact check organization does not have a clue what fact checking is.

[exDemMom]

Exactly. Noticing that was part of my journey towards becoming conservative.

[ThunderSleeps]

Agreed, it’s just a tool/excuse. “Climate stalinism?” Nah, just good old Stalinism and its ideas and ideals. The climate BS is just it’s current guise.

[Fungi]

Excellent article. That quote about the watermelon was first made by Lowell Ponte who wrote “The Cooling” over 30 years ago, a time when the common zeitgeist was “cooling,” not “climate change.”

[GOPJ]

There is true environmentalism that is concerned with reducing pollution, not spreading trash all over, preventing the spread of invasive species, etc. Then there is pseudo environmentalism, which seeks to control people’s lives and implements dangerous carbon removal schemes that pose an existential threat to all life on earth.

You're right - insightful...

[Midwesterner53]

The effort to fight the so called climate change is nothing more than a war on capitalism. Hence the reason the left loves it and pushes it relentlessly.

[Oatka]

and even Europeans doubt that climate change will affect their lives substantially.

The blog Schnitzel Republic" by expat Freeper pepsionice has a comment titled "The Brochure", which touches on this. He has a discount travel card ("Bahn") which sent him a folder, which I consider "carbon shaming" in that they point how how much carbon is created used in traveling by air, auto, and train:

Note that air is bad (99.8 kg), auto is bad (74 kg) and train good ("free"). The gist of it is that most Germans don't buy this Guilt Trip crap. Worth a read.

[DeweyCA]

This is a nice summary article on the global warming issue. Thanks.