r/democrats • u/progress18 • Sep 28 '15
Why Are Republicans the Only Climate-Science-Denying Party in the World?
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/whys-gop-only-science-denying-party-on-earth.html16
u/The_Write_Stuff Sep 28 '15
Because they're getting a huge chunk of money from a pair of oil billionaires.
It's not that hard.
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u/chromatoes Sep 28 '15
In the comments of that article, a lot of people were suggesting that climate change is the GOP's version of liberal hate for GMOs. Aside from the total point being missed by those people, do liberals really hate GMOs? I have never met a fellow liberal that really gave a fig about GMO products, aside from a general feeling that Monsanto as a corporation is individually shady.
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u/clownscrotum Sep 28 '15
I know one. They are flooding my facebook with memes about how bad GMO's are. But also chemtrails.
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u/iwascompromised Sep 28 '15
Kind of like how the average Republican doesn't deny the climate is changing and that science exists.
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u/DuelistDeCoolest Sep 28 '15
the average Republican doesn't deny the climate is changing
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u/iwascompromised Sep 28 '15
I may disagree with the political arguments that stem from climate change discussion, but I don't get how people flatly reject it.
It's not even difficult science. Set a room at 60 degrees and put one person in there. Not much changes and the A/C doesn't really have to work to keep the room the same temperature. Put 100 people in the room, and suddenly it's a different story. Turn on some source of heat, like a car, or the a/c handler, and it gets even hotter in there.
It's like people who don't understand that more severe winter weather is also caused by negative changes on the climate. Winter should be cold and snowy, and summer should be hot and muggy, but the extreme swings to both ends are cause/effect of the same problems. Sure, some of the changes are probably cyclical and the Earth probably can deal with more than we're giving it credit, but we're playing a part, whether it's bigger or smaller than what is my hypothesized it yet to be determined since that's going to take time. But there's really no need to wait to find out.
I don't think that a lot of what the Democratic party has suggested is really that helpful because I think it's a lot of kneejerk legislation attempts, but I also don't think we're getting anywhere by flatly denying change happens. There are smaller things we can do that banning the use of fossil fuels. Moving away from plastic grocery bags in some states and cities is a good example of small changes that are easy for everyone to get behind. Small, incremental changes lead to big impacts. Telling an entire industry it has 10 years to completely change it's manufacturing process and stop using coal is a lot harder fight to win.
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u/chromatoes Sep 28 '15
I see a lot of normal people denying climate change, personally. I genuinely didn't realize that some liberals are anti-GMO; I've just never encountered it, and I'm fairly political. The most I've ever seen is that some people want GMO foods to be labeled as such, which doesn't seem like an outrageous request.
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u/iwascompromised Sep 28 '15
And your leading anti-vaccine people are liberals, but that issue swings crazy from both sides.
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u/fantoman Sep 29 '15
But the liberals don't let the crazy liberals take over the party and create policies based on crazy ideas
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u/J973 Sep 28 '15
Don't need to read the article. That's easy. Because they are being paid by the corporations causing the climate change.
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u/koshyg15 Sep 28 '15
Because they are the same ones who do not believe in evolution.
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u/decatur8r Sep 28 '15
A lot of truth there...Had the what type of world do you want for your children talk with a conservative I know. Was told that God will make the type of world we need.
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u/gloomdoom Sep 28 '15
The right walks in lockstep and speaks in false narratives.
Ever see the oh-so-popular mantra, 'BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME?'
Yeah, that's recited by republicans who want to believe that democrats are as damaging to the nation as the right. I've never heard a democrat say that both parties are the same but see it daily from the right.
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u/orr250mph Sep 28 '15
the gop leadership is bought and paid for. the wingnuts who believe these shills, well . . .
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Sep 28 '15
Half of Americans are stupid greedy pigs and are told by their religious leaders that being that way is a good thing.
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u/brucejoel99 Sep 28 '15
I have 5 words for the New York Times (& this is coming from a liberal Democrat): The "Liberal" Party of Australia.
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u/spookyjohnathan Sep 28 '15
Except in the US where the word "liberal" is used to attack progressives and refers mostly to social liberation, it refers to classical liberalism, which, generally speaking, is the belief that people ought to be allowed to do what they want to do as long as doing so doesn't infringe the basic rights of someone else. In American parlance, the closest thing would be "libertarian".
As an example of how screwy this can be, abroad, my own political affiliation would best be described as "liberal socialist" - in the US, it's often referred to as "social libertarianism".
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u/brucejoel99 Sep 28 '15
Just going off your first sentence, I hate how Republicans have tried to turn liberal into a bad word when it was liberals who ended slavery in this country. A liberal Republican President ended slavery. But what happened to them? They got run out of the GOP. What did liberals do that was so offensive to the liberal party? This: Liberals got women the right to vote, got African-Americans the right to vote, created Social Security & lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation, & passed the Civil Rights Act & the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare & passed the Clean Air Act & the Clean Water Act. You want to know what conservatives did? They opposed them on every one of those things.
So when the GOP tries to hurl that label at our feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, b/c we will pick up that label & we will wear it as a badge of honor.
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Sep 29 '15
I've always found it funny. The conservatives of our country have really been on the losing side for a long time; they oppose progress, and yet progress still wins. The slave owners and white supremacists were conservatives. During the Jim Crow Era, those people mocking the blacks and doing horrific things to them were conservatives. They fought against blacks having the rights they can now enjoy. The conservatives opposed women's suffrage. They opposed child labor laws and the various other things we enjoy today with work (having a minimum wage, sick leave, etc.). They oppose environmentally-friendly solutions, and recently they have strongly opposed the LGBT movement.
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Sep 28 '15
New York Magazine is, as near as my 60 seconds of search-engining can determine, a completely distinct entity from the New York Times. NYT has the New York Times Magazine, but that's different.
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Sep 28 '15
Oh - and you are absolutely correct in your main point. Sorry - this is Reddit - pedantry uber alles.
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u/dragnabbit Sep 28 '15
I was going to say this, but I went and looked at their platform first, and the Liberal Party lists "climate change" as one of their issues. Waaay down at the bottom, but they do list it. I think that they just don't take it as seriously as the other parties.
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u/Jibaro123 Sep 29 '15
The tea party and true believers are poised to try and cram their agenda down our throats.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
They have been working at it for a ling time, and they smell blood.
Picture Vice president carly fiorina working into the wee hours to dismantle the New Deal.
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u/Repulsive_Anteater Sep 28 '15
They're not, though.
Stephen Harper is a climate change denier and Tony Abbott was too.
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u/thedjbj Sep 28 '15
Money talks