Jeff Goldstein and Orson Scott Card discuss the fact that the global warming “debate” has moved to a whole new level of insanity. Card fisks a columnist who is lying about the cost of the leftists’ plan to go green – and that the media is proudly hiding the evidence that such action is unnecessary:
But Brod thinks it’s a good thing that the media aren’t telling you about global-warming skeptics.
How far does this go? What else does he think the media shouldn’t be telling us about?
I think back to another time when the media—this time in England—were committed to concealing facts from their readers and listeners. It was back in 1937, 1938, and 1939.
When Chamberlain and the appeasers in the British government were selling out Austria and then Czechoslovakia, most newspapers declined to tell their readers about the Jews who were murdered in Austria after the Nazis took over; they didn’t bother to tell them anything that might cause them to doubt Neville Chamberlain’s program of appeasing the dictators.
The media also didn’t think it was worth reporting how badly armed the British military was, or how heavily the Germans were rearming. After all, that might promote “alarmism” or pro-war fervor, and “everybody” knew that Chamberlain’s appeasement program was going to bring peace.
The poll statistics were just as good as the ones Brod is citing. Huge majorities of the public “believed” in appeasement just as huge majorities believe (to some degree) in anthropogenic global warming. But what they believed and what was true were, just like today, very far apart—precisely because the media concealed the truth.
As a result, when Chamberlain came back from Munich brandishing “peace in our time,” the British public loved him.
Seven years later, with six million Jews and six million other death- and slave-camp victims gone and eastern Europe doomed to be enslaved by Communist governments imposed by the conquering Russians, not to mention many cities in England in ruins and many thousands of soldiers and civilians dead, it would have been hard to find anybody who appreciated the British media’s having kept the truth from them about those lonely “appeasement skeptics.”
Isn’t it funny how the public has a “right to know”—except when the media decides not to tell them?
Goldstein notes, “In short, they are proselytizing—and without the inconvenience of having to identify themselves as religious zealots.” and concludes, “Welcome to the brave new world of progressivism.”
Read both articles, but not unless you’ve taken your blood pressure medication. It is beyond infuriating to see the manipulation and lies go – mostly – unchecked. Remember, this is the fourth time the media has hyped catastrophic climate change. This has been going on since 1895. In the past, they kept it up until the evidence was so overwhelming that it could not be denied that what they’d been preaching was false. And then they promptly switched to the other side of the debate – “no, it’s not warming, it’s cooling now! And we’re all gonna DIE!! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
This may be some of the most irresponsible drivel I’ve ever read on this blog.
First, to compare global warming alarmists and Nazi’s is so hyperbolic as to be mind numbing.
Second: I draw your attention to the well known concept behind Godwin’s Law.
Third: When I began reading this blog I was drawn in by a handful of thoughtful, well articulated posts on the nature of faith and of religion in the modern world. The bulk of recent posts have centered on conservative politics. Did I manage to catch just a few good posts amid other concerns? Did the focus of the blog change over time? If so, will it change back? What I was reading before was dynamic and provoking. Now I’m reading the same stuff I can find from any other political blowhard.
Thomas, Card (not me, although I happen to agree with him) was comparing the *media’s behavior* on two different occasions. THAT is a fair comparison. He was not calling either the global warming crowd or the media Nazis, and Godwin just doesn’t apply. I read your blog and you’re a smart guy. Reread what Card actually wrote and I think you’ll agree with me that he did not call anyone a Nazi; he was talking about the media hiding the truth in service to what it thought was a correct agenda.
In one case, peace, in this case, the environment. In both cases, concealing/obscuring the full truth is wrong. In the past, it led to an undesirable outcome, and it will this time, and every other time it happens. As the Card quote ends, “Isn’t it funny how the public has a “right to know”—except when the media decides not to tell them?” *That* is the purpose of his comparison, not to compare people to Nazis.
I’m sorry you think I’m a political blowhard… I’m as passionate about what I believe as anyone else, and the media’s recent behavior, and that of the left, is flat out infuriating to me. So yes, I’ve written about it more than usual. As to the faith posts, they’ve been scattered throughout. Less frequently of late because there are things I just can’t talk about yet – and when I do, you just might think I’m a zealot or some kind of nut. Regardless, I’ve enjoyed your past comments here as they are often thought-provoking.