Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Well it's one solution: go marry a climate denialist

Interesting article from a man married to an anti-vaxxer. It reminds me a little about studies showing that a prejudiced people need intense contact with the members of the group they're biased against before eliminating their prejudice; casual contact can be counterproductive.

In the case of the article, overcoming bias was a two-way street, with the author having to abandon his (lazy) belief that anti-vaxxers were just uninformed and stupid. He ascribes his wife's viewpoint to casual and highly negative contact with conventional medicine creating a fear of vaccines. He also mentions her affiliation to her sister, whose professional career is naturopathy (there really is something to the whole Dan Kahan/cultural cognition thing; it's just too bad he exaggerates it so much).

In the author's case, it took years of conversation before his wife finally let her daughter get vaccinated, but it did work. Single people out there who believe in science, you now know what to do.

Or short of that, some empathy for those who only sip at the cup of denialism, while laughter may be more appropriate for those who wallow and profit from it.

ELI:  Perhaps the bunnies might send a delegation to Peter Webster and ask how that has turned out?

22 comments:

Blogger profile said...

Eeeeeeewwww.

Even if you hated women, surely that would be too much to ask for, marry one of them.

Imagine it. They don't want to do the dishes, so they decide that there's no such thing. That dishes have been clean before, and they'll be clean again, because "dish dirt" is all part of the natural cycle.

Or how in the time of the Dinosaurs, cavemen didn't have dirty dishes, therefore there can;t be dirty dishes today.

Or that there is a huge conspiracy between the detergent manufacturers and Obama that is trying to syphon off tax money to the land of bubbles so that fairies will rule the world. FOLLOW THE MONEY!

It would probably be against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause to even ASK a woman to marry a denier.

Just the dishes alone...

Blogger profile said...

Not to mention the deniers' seemingly widespread obsession over the Unabomber. Such obsession would appear to be a worrying indicator of their violent instability.

I would not wish a woman (or man, you know, even deniers can be gay) to put themselves in risk by spending so much private and unescorted time with someone like that.

It's just not reasonable.

J C Brookes said...

But the sacrifice of marrying a climate denialist? They are mostly old men, and despite being pro gay marriage, this surely is a step too far. And for a youngish woman to make such a sacrifice! Unthinkable. Just let nature take its course and they will die eventually, but hopefully not before seeing the world take decisive action on climate.

Tom said...

Typical cultist assumption: That you are so attractive that even a denialist would succumb to your charms. One wonders about the reproductive strategies of creatures like BP, BBD and BPL. I do not believe they are based on sweetness or success in the workplace...

Blogger profile said...

Tom doesn't want to marry, obviously.

One wonders about why deniers get so bent out of shape when you call THEM deniers, claiming they are not, yet also get bent out of shape when you make fun of deniers, who they "know" is someone else, or even "nonexistent". Kinda makes you conclude they're in denial about their denial.

Can you imagine the wedding ceremony?

Priest: Do you take this woman
Denier: What do you mean? There IS no woman! I'm not here! Nobody believes in marriage! They're just being skeptical of this entire ceremony thing, which is obviously just a scam by the church to indoctrinate us!

(runs out into the street yelling randomly)

Fernando Leanme said...

I would consider marrying one of my daughters into a Warmist clan, but the candidate would have to be at least an IPCC member's son with a PhD and political connections in the USA Democratic Party. The dowry would include a 20 million ton coal deposit in India, 5000 head of cattle, and 5000 Ha in prime Texas acreage suitable for at least 20 Eagle Ford fracked oil wells.

Blogger profile said...

So, Fern, you'd "let" your daughter marry someone rational, but you have to be picky and still control their choice to a limited set of random criteria.

And *deniers* whine about a scary NWO trying to control them and tell them what to do in their life...

Back at the wedding ceremony:
Pastor: Do you take this woman...
Denier: DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, YOU CONTROL FREAK! Woman! Hit this man and tell the police he assaulted you! Then go hop on one leg whistling the Star Spangled Banner!

Barton Paul Levenson said...

Tom: One wonders about the reproductive strategies of creatures like BP, BBD and BPL.

BPL: One wonders if you'd talk this kind of schizitt to my face. I married a girl I first met when I was ten and re-met when we were 19. I didn't have a "strategy" about it.

Barton Paul Levenson said...

FL: I would consider marrying one of my daughters into a Warmist clan, but the candidate would have to be at least an IPCC member's son with a PhD and political connections in the USA Democratic Party. The dowry would include a 20 million ton coal deposit in India, 5000 head of cattle, and 5000 Ha in prime Texas acreage suitable for at least 20 Eagle Ford fracked oil wells.

BPL: We don't generally do arranged marriages in America, Fernando. Here we believe the bride and groom should choose each other.

Fernando Leanme said...

Yes Barton, but in this case i would not be following US customs. I would not approve if one of my daughters wanted to marry a low level Warmist Clan member. It wouldn't be dignified. But we can wait to see if the world temperature anomaly is higher in 2017 than 2015. If it's lower I'll marry a daughter into a Denier Clan. That would be a cheaper dowry, Lomborg's Complete Works and an Antarctica poster showing sea ice at record extent.

You guys got to work on Blogger Profile's content. Reminds me of a little Louisiana hamlet: called Gros Tete.

Blogger profile said...

"Yes Barton, but in this case i would not be following US customs."

Why not? Hissy fit? Spite?

"But we can wait to see if the world temperature anomaly is higher in 2017 than 2015."

Why? It's higher than 2 years ago. You didn't accept the IPCC conclusions then. Why would you accept them now? And why would your fictitious daughter's wedding be dependent on that?

Stupidity? Insanity? Mania?

"You guys got to work on Blogger Profile's content."

Is that how you guys work on your content? All get together and work out what to say and who gets to say it?

Vinny Burgoo said...

This is all so tribal. What we all need, people, is a big dose of positividy. We've gotta enlist positive postividy to, like, fend off all the negative negatividy rays being sent out by Internets like these and by mobile phones and wifi and all the other electrosmogtastic devices bedevilling our modern world or we'll all be so banjaxed by their negatividy that we'll all become, like, Minnesotan dentists and head off to Africa to shoot lions with crossbows and stuff and this'll, like, inevitably result in all our karmas being bombarded with quite possibly fadal negatividies - and that's not a thread: that's science!

http://www.celebrityradio.biz/2015-noel-edmonds-interview-exclusive-life-story/

Edmonds also mentioned climate change. (Too big to tackle without first tackling negatividy, or something. It's a while since I listened to it.)

Mr Edmonds is married.

Aaron said...

A (married) woman in Marin was an anti-vaccination activist. Then, all 7 of her kids came down sequentially with whooping cough.

After 7 weeks of caring for her sick kids, she became a pro-vaccination activist.

We are in a time of transhumance. These days germs can move by jet airplane and TGV.

Brian said...

Fernando, I'm willing to bet, as in actual money, that 2017 will be in the top 10 warmest years for whatever stage ENSO dominates that year - top 10 El Nino, top 10 La Nina, or top 10 La Nada.

Meanwhile I have no idea if you really have young daughters, but if you do then I hope they're extremely independent.

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

<a href = 'http://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2015/09/big-bill-mckinley.html"><b>The first to marry a Denaliist was Ida Saxton McKinley<//b></a>

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

Bad html ?

http://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2015/09/big-bill-mckinley.html

John said...

What's worse: 7 children spreading whooping cough or 7 children consuming at American rates?
Is there a vaccine for obsessive, power consumption?

John Puma

Blogger profile said...

There's no need for overconsumption to the level you currently do.

Some simple changes that will make a big difference to your power use and naff all to your life:

1) Stop using a clothes dryer. Hang the clothes out to dry.
2) Use clothes more and AC less for temperature control.
3) Walk. If it's less than 2 miles, WALK.

Other changes:
Stop building cheap shitty housing. Build something that actually fits the climate rather than the budget.
Stop buying the biggest damn EVERYTHING you can get away with financing
Stop seeing things as a sign of your worth
Build and use mass transit.

These things can drop 75% of your energy use in the USA. And, yes, your homes will cost more, boo hoo. But they're WORTH more. Woo hoo!

Blogger profile said...

John, by the way, are you suggesting infecting 7 american kids with whooping cough to reduce the overconsumption?

Harsh. man. They haven't started yet. Infect adults. They're the ones using shit up.

Unknown said...

OT, but just thought the Bunny may like this (perhaps enough to make a post on it - if not just delete). Oz Mining Inc. (who has run VERY successful advertising campaigns in the past, including one which led to Oz repealing a tax on mining resources during its largest mining boom in history) has failed in its latest efforts due to the response on social media. The response was big enough to be reported across the MS media which is what really counts.

Here is a starting point (although I have seen better).

http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/coalisamazing-goes-viral-after-minerals-council-of-australias-pr-fail-of-the-year/story-e6frflp0-1227517032631

and the twitter hashtag #coalisamazing.

Think it is a good story for an international audience (albeit a small one).

Hank Roberts said...

This, while not exactly about climate denial, has much in common with that problem:

"It is simply easier for some people to believe that the United States government has concocted a vast conspiracy to take away all of our guns than it is to believe that it is too easy for a mentally ill person to acquire one and shoot anyone they want. And now those same people are taking it out on the families of the victims of gun violence after a tragedy." What Do You Say To A Roanoke Truther?
-- Ben Collins, The Daily Beast

Trigger (cough) warning ...

Blogger profile said...

Well, they "know" they're not a nutter. They "know" they have a "reason". And gun control is telling them they can't be trusted without verification.

That is a very personal insult.

This is one reason why not bothering with people whining about your crude insults is meaningless: people can concoct insult so as to "justify" not listening. Someone who can listen to the content without running off on a tangent about tone is actually able to think straight. Someone who can't isn't really looking for new ideas, just confirmation of their old ones.