Chris Mooney has come up with new book to explain why people like you and I are “abby-normal” for not unthinkingly and uncritically accepting all aspects of global warming climate change climate disruption. I haven’t read it, though the cover itself speaks volumes. I won’t commit the same dumb mistake that Igor Peter Gleick committed when he wrote his bogus non-review of Donna LaFramboise’s IPCC book, so I’ll let somebody who has reviewed it speak about it. Dr. Roger Pielke Jr.
He writes: 
Chris Mooney, the author and blogger who once alleged a Republican “war” on science, is going back to that well one more time with a new book (above). In it he “explores brain scans, polls, and psychology experiments to explain why conservatives today believe more wrong things.”
Mooney writes:
“[T]here might be a combination of genes acting together that somehow predispose us to have particular politics, presumably through their role in influencing our brains and thus our personalities or social behaviors ..,”
Mooney promises to explain:
“[T]he real, scientific reasons why Republicans reject the widely accepted findings of mainstream science, economics, and history—as well as many undeniable policy facts.”
…
Roger adds:
I wonder how well telling half the American populace that they are genetically/psychologically/mentally inferior will communicate?
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Next I suppose we’ll hear why we need selective breeding programs to weed out this “genetic scourge”.
Turnabout is fair play:
I’m sure Josh could do a better satire, but hey, this is the best I can do on one cup of coffee.
Some inspiring levity from Mel Brooks:
“He adds:
I wonder how well telling half the American populace that they are genetically/psychologically/mentally inferior will communicate?”
😉 Hey, this is straight from C. Sagan’s book “The Demon-Haunted World” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World)! Where he wrights about statistcs:
“Misunderstanding of the nature of statistics (e.g., President Dwight
Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully
half of all Americans have below average intelligence).”
Would it be too early to call him the “Michael Moore” (of “Roger and Me’, ‘Fahrenheit 9/11” et al) of his particular sect (notwithstanding physical factors)?
.
So hard — oh so hard — to not invoke Godwin’s Law here. Biting my tongue…
Is there something about a leftist, Journalism major brain that prevents them from believing in the scientific method?
Just a simple answer will do. I need anyone to write a book or anything.
Soooo Matt Ridley has a Republican Brain and is anti-science eh Chris ??
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/ridley_rsa.pdf
Amen brother Wilson. I’m tired of the whole right wing conspiracy meme in regards to the AGW debate. Being a conservative is not a prerequisite for calling the science into question.
I’m one of those people who believes liberalism/progressiveism is a mental disorder. Those that suffer from this disorder, who we label “liberals” or “progressives”, do not have a grasp on reality. They live in a fantasy world where they know better than everyone else and therefore are best qualified to rule over us all – telling us how we should live, what we should eat, what we should read and so on. They also believe the rules they apply to us do not apply to them. To date, there is no cure for this disorder, though sometimes a liberal/progressive is cured, at least as far as their opinion on gun control and criminal control is concerned, after they are mugged or assaulted. But that “treatment” is not reliable enough for it to be generally recommended.
Mr. Mooney’s sequel will be most interesting as he is forced to analyze, and pass judgement based on race.
South America, for the most part, doesn’t care about climate change.
India doesn’t care about climate change.
South east asia doesn’t care, China doesn’t care, Africa doesn’t care.
The middle east doesn’t care about climate change.
Who cares? North America and western europe.
It appears that the only people truly preoccupied with global warming is my fellow anglos. And some of us think the preoccupation with AGW is folly.
So, apparently, only a small fraction of the earth’s 7 Billion people aren’t genetically defective.
It is actually quite frightening to think that anyone listens to Mooney. He’s essentially creating justification for eliminating large sections of population, whether he means to or not.
What happened the last time political activists mis-used the authority of science to justify political action?
Todd says:
November 9, 2011 at 10:33 am
“Is there something about a leftist, Journalism major brain that prevents them from believing in the scientific method?
Just a simple answer will do. I need anyone to write a book or anything.”
Yes. One cannot fail any experiment or question any data too strongly lest their self esteem be diminished. Everybody gets full marks for attendance.
Mooney needs money.
I work for a DNA sequencing company. Given his loony ideas, he must have some extreme abberations in his DNA. We would love to have his genome sequenced, so we could suggest therapy for this poor fellow, along with advise how handle this in his offspring.
/sarc
peakbear says:
November 9, 2011 at 9:16 am
…
I’m still not really sure what your political persuasion has to do with whether you believe in CAGW.
—
I’m on the wrong side of this correlation as well, but it seems to be at least as good as that between CO2 and temperatures.
I wonder how he asks us to falsify his theory. Do we have to wait 17 years or something ?
or maybe it’s simply non-falsifiable
So how does he explain people like me who don’t believe in Apocalyptic Anthropogenic Carbon Induced Climate Alteration or whatever they’re calling it now, but wouldn’t vote Republican even if you held a gun to my head in the voting booth – leave aside the fact I’m in the UK for a moment 😉
As a lifelong confirmed Socialist it really does annoy me that my carefully considered views on a single topic get me labelled as some neo-facist capitalist profit whore* Belief or otherwise in the current state of climate science is (should be) nothing to do with political leanings – I honestly am a virtual commie in my general outlook**.
It’s to do with capacity for independent thought, a willingness to listen to all sides, and to judge arguments entirely on perceived merit. Attributes that political parties of ALL flavours tend to frown on, or there’d be no such thing as the “Party Line”.
Even if I was completely new to the debate, without the balance of evidence I’ve personally looked at, the fact that the AGW camp are so keen to politicise their position like this (and using absurdly general stereotypes to do it!) rather than sticking to discussing the science would immediately make me wary of their motives!
*No offence intended to Republicans by that but I get the distinct impression that’s what the AGW movement are really thinking when they say “Republican”. Just as valid as their other views, but there ya go!
** If you neo-fascist capitalist blah-blah-blah’s want to see me as some pinko nuke weilding threat to global stability because of that then fair play to you 😀
I’m extremely genetically defective. I don’t beleive anyone, even myself.
[snip – over the top]
Chris Mooney’s long form Freudian projection.
Ron says:
November 9, 2011 at 7:55 am
I wonder if he’s got a theory on Independents, or on party switchers.
_____
Take it from my personal experience…Independent’s brains are the most unusual of all.
So Mooney admits global warming is an opinion.
“A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do,” he says. “A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation’s citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do.”
Lyle H Rossiter Jr, MD
The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness
Ayn Rand was a better physicist than Chris Mooney will ever be.
As best as I can tell, post-normal science implies reaching scientific conclusions with minimal supporting data when a hypothetical threat is seen to be so dangerous that it must be declared true out of an abundance of caution. Perhaps this might better be called ‘fear-forced science.’
Objective truth by the scientific method is only obtained by persistent skepticism that continually tests all models against data. We need to uphold the scientific method against the efforts of Mooney et al. who seek to impose political control over science by “chicken little” alarmism.
e.g. See Trenberth’s effort to reverse the null hypothesis.
Climate null (?) hypothesis
PS Does Mooney claim the existence of the “gay” gene by natural selection?
The history books will write about this period and they will say …
“Even though the evidence up to 2011 pointed to … , the ___ side continued to … ”
What does the actual evidence to 2011 say?