Every now and then, it’s worth reminding ourselves that much of the national political discourse operates based upon a script, and, usually, script cues are driven by the news media. For example, every Christmas as if on cue the conservative entertainment complex wheels out its crusade against the so-called “War on Christmas.” Every beat is predictable and completely bogus. There is no “War on Christmas” and any anyone who says it’s real should be greeted with either boisterous laughter or a well-timed obscenity.
Likewise, in recent years, whenever there’s snowy, cold weather somewhere, the same crew, mostly led by Matt Drudge, unpacks and dusts off its “global warming is a myth” headlines, using a snap of cold weather in the northeast as hard evidence that the entire globe isn’t getting warmer at an alarming rate. Drudge, in particular, likes to juxtapose news of a blizzard (somewhere) with a recent global warming headline. The internet’s most popular troll’s favorite trick.
Clearly, this chapter of the script, just like the “War on Christmas” chapter, is intended to exploit the idiocy of slow-witted, low information viewers/listeners/readers. Lookie outside! BRR! It’s cold! So much for global warming. Har-har. Uh no. Anyone who’s dumb enough to draw this conclusion, I’d love to sell them some robot insurance. Because robots are strong and they eat old people’s medicine for fuel.
See, it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and Summer in the Southern Hemisphere where in Australia, for example, they’re enduring a record-breaking heat wave. The seasons are opposite due to the natural tilt of the Earth’s axis and — well, you know. Science, science, science. But screw that mumbo-jumbo — it’s easier to look outside, see snow on the ground and then to, via confirmation bias, conclude that global warming is a hoax. Easy. And dumb.
If you’d like to see the heads of your denialist friends explode like that guy from Scanners, tell them about the polar vortex… [CONTINUE READING]