House of Eratosthenes

Commenter dc wants to know why I walked through the details of all the things I’ve learned about people since I came of age, when it seems “people like to conform to each other” would do the trick. Well, I’ve already explained, that doesn’t really do the trick…if there’s a common theme, it’s that we have a tragic predilection toward conforming toward dysfunction, disability, weakness and chaos.

dc is, perhaps, just helping to prove, tongue-in-cheek, observation #9:

People who don’t write anything down, get upset and frustrated when they see someone else has.

But maybe he’s sincere. If that is the case…feast your eyes on the latest real-life substantiation of observation #15 — which is —

People who have been duped by something and have come to realize it, want everyone else to be duped in the same way.

How nasty do you think people can be, what awful, vitriolic things do you think they can say, in service of Thing I’ve Learned About People That Nobody Told Me #15.

Better trot out that many paces, and then jog a good distance further. See the acid and bile that drips when people see other people, showing healthy skepticism where they know damn well they should have:

People who fail to tackle climate change are acting like an Austrian man who locked his daughter in a cellar for 24 years, an Anglican bishop has said.

The Bishop of Stafford, Gordon Mursell, wrote in a parish letter that not confronting global warming meant people were “as guilty as” Josef Fritzl.

It meant future generations would be left in a futureless world, he said.

Mr Mursell added he was not accusing people of being child abusers but shocking analogies were needed.

Gee whiz, why’s that Bishop Mursell? If it’s all climate science blah blah blah consensus has spoken blah blah blah mean global temperature blah blah blah greenhouse gas blah blah blah…why not just have a reasoned debate about it? I’m still waiting to see some evidence that carbon saturation causes an increase in temperature, rather than the other way ’round. Still waiting to see evidence that industry has more of an effect on the mean global temperature than any natural phenomena, terrestrial or extra-.

In that vein, I’m still waiting for a concrete, objective, measurable definition of “mean global temperature.” Still waiting for a reasoned argument that our temperature measurement methods have been so accurate and consistent across the generations, that an increase of 1 degree in that time means anything at all.

What is this stuff you call “science” that cannot be explained without analogies loaded with shock value? This process, in which we abandon the enterprise of answering the quite reasonable questions above…and start comparing child molesters with people who simply disagree with you? Or who merely question you? People who haven’t been duped as you have. Inigo Montoya Time: I do not think that word — “science” — means what you think it means.

But anyway, dc. We’re going to keep seeing examples like this, and that’s why we walk through the disastrous human tendencies one by one by one. Saying “I toldja so” is kinda fun…I’ve never pretended to be above it. And things that are true, tend to be proven out over time.

Things that aren’t, tend to depend on “shocking analogies.”

H/T: Rick.

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Deniers Are Like FritzlTuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Deniers Are Like Fritzl
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008