It's hard to pick an appropriate word, because I guess there are several reasons for intellectual dishonesty:
Denial in all its forms. Wishful thinking, motivated reasoning, self-deception. A slew of cognitive biases, not least the infamous cognitive dissonance. Unfathomable levels of irrationality that really should be called for what it is:
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” - Albert Einstein
Greediness, stubbornness, shortsightedness, and selfishness. Arrogance & hubris. In-group conformity; us & them tribalism. Highly naive models of the world leading to all manners of flawed ideologies. Our total inability to properly grasp probabilities, exponential growth, and threats not directly in front of us.
My God... Is it any wonder we are utterly unable to face the truth?
Thanks for responding to this guy Beth. I saw a video of him talking about how many Africa women die from cooking smoke. That was his rational for electrifying Africa. He has no idea that doing so would help to destroy all of life on the planet.
Yes. It just feels SO smarmy to use poor women in Africa to get us to fall in line with his "We need more energy" schtick. In that talk he says that when you run the math on renewables it will "yield perhaps only a few hundredths of a degree reduction in global temperatures in the year 2100." Right because so called renewables don't replace fossil fuels, and growth in energy use dwarfs any CO2 savings from renewables (because they are so minuscule). So his answer is, yes the climate is changing, but because poor women in Africa are dying of cooking smoke, we should just keep charging ahead with all the energy we can get ... because everything will be magically fine and of course we need to "lift citizens out of grinding poverty"?
Apparently he didn't read (or just doesn't care because for him it's about making money NOT about the women in Africa, OBVIOUSLY) the report that said we'll lose 50% GDP and 4 billion people will die at +3C. Sorry but we won't be lifting anyone out of poverty when half the world is dead. FFS.
This using poor people to continue the destruction of the planet crap has infuriated me. As you can probably tell.
Thanks for the article, good to be reminded of how the supremacists think and act. Title reminds of the Dalai Lama saying, am paraphrasing from memory: Burning furniture in a house so as to stay warm is not a long term energy solution.
"What a strange place it is to be, where we equate more destruction of our home and our non-human kin with being “pro human”. It’s like watching a family roasting hotdogs over the flames as their house burns down."
Great analogy... I love it!
As we all know the disinformation campaign runs long and deep. The following is from a dated article I ran across yesterday that was written by energy sector whistleblower Simone Marsh--
Michael West Media (Simone Marsh) 1/15/20-- Compromised: Genie Energy and the Murdoch media’s climate denial
"Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney, former CIA director James Woolsey, former US Treasury head Larry Summers, former US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, hedge fund boss Michael Steinhardt and Jacob Rothschild have something in common. They are all on the board of oil and gas explorer, Genie Energy. Gas industry whistleblower Simone Marsh explores Rupert Murdoch’s fossil fuel interests."
It's hard to pick an appropriate word, because I guess there are several reasons for intellectual dishonesty:
Denial in all its forms. Wishful thinking, motivated reasoning, self-deception. A slew of cognitive biases, not least the infamous cognitive dissonance. Unfathomable levels of irrationality that really should be called for what it is:
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” - Albert Einstein
Greediness, stubbornness, shortsightedness, and selfishness. Arrogance & hubris. In-group conformity; us & them tribalism. Highly naive models of the world leading to all manners of flawed ideologies. Our total inability to properly grasp probabilities, exponential growth, and threats not directly in front of us.
My God... Is it any wonder we are utterly unable to face the truth?
Chris Wright's comments at the recent CERA week: https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-energy-chris-wright-delivers-keynote-remarks-ceraweek-2025
Thanks for responding to this guy Beth. I saw a video of him talking about how many Africa women die from cooking smoke. That was his rational for electrifying Africa. He has no idea that doing so would help to destroy all of life on the planet.
Yes. It just feels SO smarmy to use poor women in Africa to get us to fall in line with his "We need more energy" schtick. In that talk he says that when you run the math on renewables it will "yield perhaps only a few hundredths of a degree reduction in global temperatures in the year 2100." Right because so called renewables don't replace fossil fuels, and growth in energy use dwarfs any CO2 savings from renewables (because they are so minuscule). So his answer is, yes the climate is changing, but because poor women in Africa are dying of cooking smoke, we should just keep charging ahead with all the energy we can get ... because everything will be magically fine and of course we need to "lift citizens out of grinding poverty"?
Apparently he didn't read (or just doesn't care because for him it's about making money NOT about the women in Africa, OBVIOUSLY) the report that said we'll lose 50% GDP and 4 billion people will die at +3C. Sorry but we won't be lifting anyone out of poverty when half the world is dead. FFS.
This using poor people to continue the destruction of the planet crap has infuriated me. As you can probably tell.
Thanks for the article, good to be reminded of how the supremacists think and act. Title reminds of the Dalai Lama saying, am paraphrasing from memory: Burning furniture in a house so as to stay warm is not a long term energy solution.
"What a strange place it is to be, where we equate more destruction of our home and our non-human kin with being “pro human”. It’s like watching a family roasting hotdogs over the flames as their house burns down."
Great analogy... I love it!
As we all know the disinformation campaign runs long and deep. The following is from a dated article I ran across yesterday that was written by energy sector whistleblower Simone Marsh--
Michael West Media (Simone Marsh) 1/15/20-- Compromised: Genie Energy and the Murdoch media’s climate denial
"Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney, former CIA director James Woolsey, former US Treasury head Larry Summers, former US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, hedge fund boss Michael Steinhardt and Jacob Rothschild have something in common. They are all on the board of oil and gas explorer, Genie Energy. Gas industry whistleblower Simone Marsh explores Rupert Murdoch’s fossil fuel interests."
https://michaelwest.com.au/compromised-genie-energy-and-the-murdoch-medias-climate-denial/
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