Snow Means Liberals Are Idiots

/ Richard R. Barron / 3 Comments
Sidebar: Christians sometimes cite Pascal's Wager as a rationale for believing in God. It goes something like this: if you believe in God and you are right, you win. If you believe in God and you are wrong, you lose nothing. But if you don't believe in God and you are wrong, you lose, big time. I guess what bothers me about citing this wager isn't just that it's a vast oversimplification of reality, but that it isn't used in situations like global warming: If you believe in global warming and act to reduce it and you were right, you win! If you believe in global warming and act to reduce it and you were wrong, you still haven't lost anything. But if you don't believe in global warming and do nothing and you were wrong, you lose. In fact, all of humanity loses.
Sidebar: Christians sometimes cite Pascal's Wager as a rationale for believing in God. It goes something like this: if you believe in God and you are right, you win. If you believe in God and you are wrong, you lose nothing. But if you don't believe in God and you are wrong, you lose, big time. I guess what bothers me about citing this wager isn't just that it's a vast oversimplification of reality, but that it isn't used in situations like global warming: If you believe in global warming and act to reduce it and you were right, you win! If you believe in global warming and act to reduce it and you were wrong, you still haven't lost anything. But if you don't believe in global warming and do nothing and you were wrong, you lose. In fact, all of humanity loses.

Remember last winter when parts of our country were experiencing record-breaking snowfall and cold? Every third post on Facebook was something like this: “More snow forecast for tonight. I guess that’s ‘global warming’ for you, huh?”

The message wasn’t very subtle: global warming was a myth. The underlying message was less obvious: “I am an indoctrinated conservative who believes whatever the rich tell me, and they say global warming is a myth, so I am citing snow as an example of this.” + “I don’t know much about climate or science, but I do know what Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck tell me.”

I am honestly baffled by this kind of thinking, since I tend, as a thinking adult, to listen to the scientific community and moderate media sources for my news about the climate. I don’t listen to politicians (liberal or conservative), and I certainly don’t listen to the church or Facebook conservatives when it comes to matters of science and research.

I’m telling you all this because we in the south are in the midst of a heat wave and drought that are thought to be among the worst in history. But it can’t be due to global warming, because it snowed last winter. But hey, don’t take my word for it or anyone else’s. You have the internet or you wouldn’t be seeing this page, so go find out for yourself about climate change. I recommend you look here first: NOAA Report on Climate Change. But if the truth is a little bit too scary for you, there is always Fox News.

Other sidebar: I had a friend unfriend me on Facebook last spring because he felt I "hated conservatives" and that he never read my posts. This is very odd to me, for two reasons. 1) If you really believe the conservative platform, wouldn't you want to debate me and try to enlighten me? and 2) Don't Christians say, "Hate the sin, not the sinner?" Doesn't this apply to people who disagree with you? Or would you rather just surround yourself with cronies who wave the flag with you? I don't hate conservatives, but I don't have to swallow their lies. If you read this and unfriend me this time, I won't try to stop you.
Other sidebar: I had a friend unfriend me on Facebook last spring because he felt I "hated conservatives" and that he never read my posts. This is very odd to me, for two reasons. 1) If you really believe the conservative platform, wouldn't you want to debate me and try to enlighten me? and 2) Don't Christians say, "Hate the sin, not the sinner?" Doesn't this apply to people who disagree with you? Or would you rather just surround yourself with cronies who wave the flag with you? I don't hate conservatives, but I don't have to swallow their lies. If you read this and unfriend me this time, I won't try to stop you.

3 Comments

  1. One of your best ones yet, Richard. Keep it up man! You’re my voice of sanity and reason in this crazy a$$ world. Oh gosh, what does that say about ME????

  2. what’s awesome is that global warming theorists suggest erratic weather patterns are a result of global warming. that means, among other things, a trend in a certain area isn’t necessarily indicative of the whole.
    as we discussed earlier, i often wonder why a significant number of Christians take a stance opposed to the field of science. as we’ve also discussed, i consider myself a Christian. i, however, don’t believe that creationism is science (based on the definition of science), do believe that the theory of evolution is correct and also believe that global warming is occurring. i don’t see how any of these things place me at odds with God. mainstream Christian leadership, however, has consistently openly opposed most major scientific theories throughout history. then we wonder why people don’t listen to us when we voice opposition to a new scientific theory. we’ve got a pretty crappy track record, boys and girls.

    sorry about the novel.

  3. “(And like you said in the sidebar, we have nothing to lose by acting this way.)” …except the culture of conspicuous consumption and infinite disposability.

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