UPDATE: 2/27 6:30AM PST It seems the person making the attack, Shelley Rose, is part of a climate activist group, see below.
UPDATE: 2/27 2:50PM PST, The ADL Atlanta website has deleted comments on the issue, and has closed the press release to further comments. See below.
Boy, this is ugly, and I hope this boils down to simply an error in judgement by a lower tier administrator because this is like some bizzaro-world episode; on one hand the Anti-Defamation League is coming down against the “…type of comparison diminishes and trivializes the Holocaust.“, while on another they are giving a “get out of jail free card” to the people who have repeatedly done that very thing over several years.
Two telephone calls and two emails today requesting comment from ADL’s Southeast Interim Regional Director Shelly Rose have gone unanswered. She’s aware of my calls. I asked for her directly, gave my name and affiliation, and after a pause on hold her assistant asked if it would be OK to “send you to voice mail”. Ms Rose did provide a copy of the press release below, after I queried the main organization in New York after receiving a tip about this release, but found no evidence of its existence on the ADL Press Center website. The press release below still isn’t on the website as of this writing at 6:15PM EST well after close of business there. All of my requests were done during normal business hours for both the Atlanta and NYC office.
I have to wonder if the main organization is endorsing this press release, or if this is some regional director who went rogue.
Here is the press release.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shelley Rose (404) 262-3470 work; 678-938-1399 cell
ADL Condemns Spencer’s Nazi Analogy
February 25, 2014, Atlanta, Georgia … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today denounced remarks by University of Alabama – Huntsville professor Roy Spencer who wrote on his blog that those who refer to him as a climate change “denier” should be called “global warming Nazis” and that they “are supporting policies that will kill far more people than the Nazis ever did — all in the name of what they consider to be a righteous cause.”
He also claims those who advocate for policies to slow global warming are “like the Nazis” in that they are fascist and anti-capitalist. The post is also accompanied by an image of a swastika.
Shelley Rose, ADL Southeast Interim Regional Director issued the following statement:
University of Alabama Professor Roy Spencer’s analogy of proponents of global warming to Nazis is outrageous and deeply offensive. This analogy is just the latest example of a troubling epidemic of comparisons to Hitler and the Holocaust.
It has become too common to use comparisons to the Holocaust and Nazi imagery to attack people with opposing views, whether the issue is global warming, immigration or stem-cell research.
The six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims of Hitler deserve better. Their deaths should not be used for political points or sloganeering. This type of comparison diminishes and trivializes the Holocaust. There is no place for it in civil discussions.
Shelley Rose |Interim Regional Director
Anti-Defamation League | 3490 Piedmont Road; Suite 610 | Atlanta, Georgia 30305
Phone: 404-262-3470 I Fax: 404-262-3548 I Cell: 678-938-1399 I srose@adl.org
ADL website I our blog I facebook I twitter I youtube I pinterest I google+ I linkedin
==============================================================
I queried Ms Rose for a comment on the last paragraph, asking:
Wouldn’t that also apply to the use of “denier” to denigrate people, including Dr. Spencer. whose research has nothing to do with the holocaust or denial of it?
I also asked her to comment on the “green light” as a working title, asking if it was an accurate representation of their position. It was clear to me from the lack of response to two emails and two telephone calls was ” no comment”.
From their website, apparently slurs in major league football rate higher in concern than comparing climate skeptics to holocaust deniers for the purpose of denigration:
ADL Welcomes NFL’s Willingness to Address Hate Speech
The League welcomed reports that the NFL is considering how to discourage the use of offensive slurs during the course of games and said that “the question of how to address offensive speech and the best ways to counter it on playing fields and in locker rooms is an important conversation.”
And that’s why I think this is bizarre. The selective hypocrisy is stunning. I’m hoping the main office in New York will come to their senses and disavow the press release from the “Interim Regional Director”. Surely they must see the ugly conundrum they’ve manufactured for themselves.
Dr. Roy Spencer responds:
Hypocrisy at the Anti-Defamation League?
He asks exactly what I was thinking; where was ADL all these years when such ugly and hateful comparisons were being made:
Ms. Rose, where was your organization when journalists, politicians, and even some scientists, chose to call us skeptics “deniers”?
We don’t deny either “global warming” or “climate change”. Yet, we are called “deniers”. Ms. Rose, do you have any inkling why the term “denier” (which is a lie) might be used against us, rather than the term “skeptic” (which is accurate)? I think you know why.
I’d really like to know how ADL can turn a blind eye the use of “denier” for the purpose of denigration while at the same time calling out a victim of the denigration for fighting back after years of abuse.
There’s also a newspaper article about it:
UAH climate expert Roy Spencer calls critics ‘global warming Nazis’; Anti-Defamation League objects
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2014/02/uah_climate_expert_roy_spencer.html
UPDATE: The PR is now posted on the Atlanta ADL website here
http://atlanta.adl.org/news/adl-condemns-spencers-nazi-analogy/
Comments are allowed there. Be civil if you leave comments please.
The only thing that makes sense to me is that this person simply doesn’t know the history, and committed a terrible error in judgment.
UPDATE2: 2/27 6:30AM PST It seems the person making the attack, Shelly Rose, is part of a climate activist group, see photo and caption.
The caption reads:
Congregations Caring for the Climate – Atlanta, GA
Bill Witherspoon, from Congregation Bet Haverim writes: This was taken Friday evening before Erev Shabbat Services. We had about three times this many for services eventually, but these were the ones who arrived in time for the photo. As part of our second week of the Omer to Honor the Earth, Shelley Rose (third from right, just right of our Torah scrolls) gave the d’var (sermon) on acting with awareness that we all breathe the same air, and Tovah Melaver (second from right) led a breathing meditation.
April 13, 2007
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stepitup2007/464126698/
You can read all about this organization at http://stepitup2007.org
Of note is the list of “Friends and Allies” which reads like a who’s who in climate activism.
This whole episode makes a lot more sense now.
UPDATE3: 2/27 2:50PM PST, The ADL Atlanta website has deleted many comments on the issue, and has closed the press release to further comments. About an hour ago, I noted 90 comments were posted, now it is down to 50. See below.
Meanwhile I’ve drafted and sent a letter by email and by fax to ADL National Director, ABRAHAM H. FOXMAN asking if ADL plans to comment on the issue, and to ask id they plan to apply their condemnation equally, along with examples of what climate skeptics have been subjected to over the years. I think they simply have been caught unaware in a conundrum created by their Atlanta Interim Director.
I ask that if anyone makes communications with this organization, please be factual and respectful – Anthony
KNR says:
February 26, 2014 at 3:25 pm
Spencer was a bad if justified move
==========
I don’t agree. Dr. Spencer’s move has brought the issue into the light where it belongs. We need more scientists of Roy’s stature to stand up.
Plain and simple the term Climate Nazis has struck a chord. Every time you hear the term “Denier”, call the speaker a Climate Nazis. They will quickly stop calling you a Denier.
The only way to defeat a bully is to stand up to them. So long as people think they can use the term “Denier” with impunity they will. The time to stop this is now.
Stand up and support Roy! Tell every person that uses the term Climate Denier that they are a Climate Nazis. Within 3 months the term Denier will be dead.
If you are worried about offending people by calling them a Climate Nazis, don’t. Simply say:
People that use the term “Climate Denier” are “Climate Nazis”.
In that way you have not called them a name. If they object, simply say:
I didn’t call you a Nazis. I said People that use the term “Climate Denier” are “Climate Nazis”.
Couldn’t agree more with her sentiment. Now all she needs to do is apply it to both sides.
Any effort at quelling descent through gate-keeping or name calling should be first and foremost the business of the anti-defamation league. It is the stilled voice and head turned away that hurts humanity, not name calling. They should call themselves the anti-gate-keeping league if they really want to be useful. I have some names to give them as a start.
jauntycyclist says:
February 26, 2014 at 5:01 pm
why name call when you have the evidence?
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the problem is bullying. repeated use of a derogatory term is a form of bullying. you cannot stop a bully through reason.
Was the ADL silent on Scott Pelley?
Yes they certainly do. So why does the ADL turn a blind eye when sceptics are called “DENIERS”! Some sceptics are in fact Jewish and some are non-Jewish but who lost family members fighting the Nazis. Please start by cleansing your souls of hypocrisy because “The six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims of Hitler deserve better.”
Eric Ellison says:
February 26, 2014 at 4:30 pm
If you ever get a chance to go to the Holocost Museum in Berlin you will find reference to hundreds of individuals who stood up to Nazi tyranny with ‘locical’ arguments only to end up dead.
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you cannot stop a bully through reason.
Thank-you Brent for the Steyn link. As a Jew , I am not happy with the opportunism of Foxman. and the ADL. I think they are more interested in tainting “right-wingers” than they are in fighting anti-semites. Many of my fellow Jews are more interested in supporting “liberal” causes than anything else. As Steyn points out almost all anti-semitism is from the left today. I guess they can raise more money by attacking the imaginary ( for the most part ) right. Their boy Obama will support the Jews. /sarc off
ADL is nothing but a bunch of miserable hypocrites if they stand behind this kind of nonsense.
its really not bizarre. I see the use of “denier” all over the place in reference to any one skeptical about any model or prediction. unfortunately it has become ok to to this. I support dr spencer for trying to show people how offensive this is. I feel offended when I here denier. but I agree neither should be used.
Renminbi- good post.Unfortunately all those Jewish liberals are deluded by the propaganda they have grown up with. The left is the home of the worst kind of nastiness, and is really just another form of deadly cultural virus.
Regardless of the ADL’s inconsistencies in apportioning blame (e.g., what about “soup nazi” or “grammar nazi”?), and regardless of its likely leftist orientation, I think it is right to object to Spencer’s “Climate nazi” counter-attack.
And I disagree with Spencer, Anth_ny and others here that “denier” can be equated to implying “Holocaust denier.” I think we’re being over-sensitive. In the accuser’s minds’ we’re “in denial” of the obvious facts and their implications. There’s no other word they could use to get that concept across.
REPLY: It’s pretty darn clear to me what it means, this essay in 2007 really injected it into the common usage.
I think you need to reconsider your thinking. – Anthony
Here is something else that’s bizarre. Where was the ADL during this sad episode on ‘Skeptical Science’? The whole attitude was all in good jest dressing up like SS solders etc.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/06/skeptcial-science-takes-creepy-to-a-whole-new-level/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/13/google-hacked-the-skeptical-science-website/
Lol – hello ADL. By all means do publish your “scientific” climate studies – I could use the laughs. Regards to calling guys like me Holocaust Deniers when disputing man made climate change – nothing we haven’t been called before. Never changed one opinion on this side, and never will. You see we have the truth on our side – what exactly do you have on your side? Lies and smears. It seems that places you on the same side of the Holocaust deniers, doesn’t it! They live on smears and lies as well.
The purpose of bullying is to create an negative emotional response in the victim. Thus, the use of the word “Denier” is a form of bullying. You cannot defeat bullying by reason, because reason does nothing to eliminate the emotional response.
The only way to defeat a bully is to generate an negative emotional response in the bully. If this response is stronger than the pleasure the bully achieves by bullying you, the bullying will stop.
Plain and simple. To defeat a bully, create a strong negative emotional response in the bully. Dr Spencer is absolutely correct in the path he has chosen.
Referring to Nazis and the holocaust is the third rail of public relations. To use these references brings those of us with skeptical, inquiring, scientific minds down to the same level as those who seek to discredit us rather than debate facts. I’m very disappointed in Professor Spencer and think he should apologize for careless and insensitive choice of words. Shut up and stick to the
science
Jimbo says:
February 26, 2014 at 5:30 pm
Some sceptics are in fact Jewish and some are non-Jewish but who lost family members fighting the Nazis.
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A great many skeptics lost family members fighting the Nazis. I am one of them. I grew up very much in the shadow of those that died in the war and I expect many on this site did as well. To be called a Denier because of what we Believe is exactly why our died families fighting against the Nazis. So that people would be free to believe whatever they chose to believe.
J Bennett says:
February 26, 2014 at 5:54 pm
Shut up and stick to the science
======================
The Gestapo used those same words.
And this should surprise anyone? NOW gave the green light to Clinton to abuse women. They no longer represent their cause, they are merely fronts for the left.
Alarmists are Holocaust deniers insofar as they deny or ignore the deaths and suffering caused by policies attempting to control carbon dioxide. It is the alarmists who parallel the deniers of the Jewish Holocaust, not skeptics. The Anti-Defamation League had better rethink its position, because of it sanctions alarmists it becomes a cabal of Holocaust deniers itself.
A scary, and prescient 5th and 4th to-the-last pair of sentences; for their numbers are increasing and noticeably disproportionate to the ‘native’ population(s):
“The groups who perpetrate this violence come from a minority community – larger than the Jews but not yet larger than everyone else. They are telling you what they will do when they have the numbers to do it.”
Bolding mine.
.
The ADL and the climate alarm movement are both philosophically left-wing, so it’s natural for them to stay in lockstep.
“No enemies to the left”
– A. Kerensky
Did the ADL chastise Jerry Seinfeld or Larry David or Jason Alexander’s use of “Soup Nazi”?
I have eyes in my head to see and a brain to understand this obscene charade from ADL.
ferdberple says:
February 26, 2014 at 5:50 pm
The only way to defeat a bully is to generate an negative emotional response in the bully. If this response is stronger than the pleasure the bully achieves by bullying you, the bullying will stop.
Plain and simple. To defeat a bully, create a strong negative emotional response in the bully. Dr Spencer is absolutely correct in the path he has chosen.
——————-
….. not to mention the liberal (ha ha) use of the term “climate parasite”, no caps.
The totalitarian wannabes really don’t like this one, but it ain’t going away.