Story by Eric Worrall
In their quest for ever more bizarre reasons why we should care about climate scare stories, alarmists have truly scraped the bottom of the barrel – their latest effort is to suggest we should care, because the late actor Robin Williams thought climate change was a problem…in 2002.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/12/3470324/robin-williams-global-warming/
Many of us loved Robin Williams the performer, or at least appreciated his world class acting abilities and his skills as an entertainer. But do we really have to care what his opinion on global warming was? I mean, I know he sadly suffered from depression, and ultimately committed suicide, but does this tragedy make Williams’ views on climate change more credible?
Once again the alarmists have demonstrated they speak another language to the rest of us, and that there is no depth they won’t plumb in their search for emotional leverage and credibility.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
In his quest for ever more bizarre reasons to hate Joe Romm, Eric Worrall has managed to read many things into a simple statement about the death of a beloved comedian that don’t seems to have been said at all by the target of his venom.
REPLY: congratulations on a lame attempt to defend the indefensible – Anthony
I wish people wouldn’t use the dead as their mouthpiece. It is macabre puppetry.
But that goes for both sides.
Some of the commenters there don’t seem too impressed either, like this one
shame you can’t let him be remembered by his fans without politicizing his death…
Don’t know about this Anthony. Seems a bit of an over reaction on your part. Robin Williams was a progressive, no doubt, and his death will be exploited by all and sundry. Just as Andrew Breibart’s death did not make conservatism any more correct.
REPLY: If I had brought up Williams name in an article about climate change first, you’d certainly have a point. But, I didn’t, nor would I. Romm deserves this drubbing for trying to use this death to score political points. Worrall is simply pointing out how wrong it is, not to mention the communications failure. – Anthony
M Courtney on August 18, 2014 at 2:09 am
“I wish people wouldn’t use the dead as their mouthpiece. It is macabre puppetry.
But that goes for both sides.
– Sure about it?
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.
Upton Sinclair, 1878-1968
“It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is – if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it.”
Richard Phillips Feynman, 1918-88
This guy isn’t dead yet, but it’s a good one:
“If you are watching in America, rugby is a bit like American football, only it’s played by men …”
Jeremy Clarcson [Top Gear]
Aren’t we supposed to rely only on the peer reviewed work of (appropriately approved) experts ?
Where do celebrity opinions fit into that ?
How many arty, celebrity types know anything at all about the world of science ?
have to admit, it hits a new low in extremely! bad taste.
[snip -wildly off topic -mod]
Stephen Wilde makes a good point. If a celebrity were to agree with alarmism, they would get a pat on the back from alarmists. But if a celebrity were to disagree with alarmism, alarmists’ heads would shake and their blogs would bemoan the lack of “science education”.
Anyway, some of the atheist* know-it-alls in the ‘free thought’ movement, who are often apologists for philosophical materialism and ‘science based medicine’, said that if Steve Jobs had received chemotherapy to begin with, he’d still be alive (how they know this is beyond me). Of course they ignore that Christopher Hitchens received chemo to begin with and he died, too.
Using specific incidences to push your cause, especially about celebrities, is not productive. Using them as talking points is of course fine.
*I am not an atheist and I’m not religious.
“Williams took global warming seriously in the way that only a great comic can.”
So we have it from Joe Romm – to be a CAGW believer it helps to be a comedian.
phlogiston says:
August 18, 2014 at 3:21 am
“Williams took global warming seriously in the way that only a great comic can.”
So we have it from Joe Romm – to be a CAGW believer it helps to be a comedian.
……………………
Priceless – Absolutely priceless !
[snip – off color, repugnant, thanks to you, we’ve had to add a whole bunch of words to the moderation filter and you yourself are now on permanent moderation – Anthony]
The way I figure it, any endogenous clinical depression being suffered by Mr. Williams had been vastly exacerbated situationally in recent months by the endless cascade of scandals and other proofs of that “good Muslim schoolboy” as not only malevolent in his intentions but criminal in his methods, all of it leading up to a perfect summa of just what happens when “Progressive” politics in its purest form arrogantly seizes power to be inflicted upon the people of a republic only now awakening to the necessity of resistance.
De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est, eh?
When a man’s professional life is nothing but the words he speaks, to remember his life, you have to remember his words.
If that reflects ill upon him – as in Mr. Williams’ case, it does – either speak of him thus, or speak of him not at all.
Robin Williams was not an activist. But his comedy was influenced by his beliefs. His humor was making the absurd understandable to the LoFo people. So in that he exaggerated the issues to make them appear more easily absurd. Romm could not be more wrong. Or more ghoulish.
I completely agree and I even beat you to the punch
Dave Wendt says:
August 14, 2014 at 12:01 am
file under there is no depth they will not sink to…
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/12/3470324/robin-williams-global-warming/
Robin Williams In 2002: ‘It Is Beyond Global Warming At This Point. It’s Cooking!’
BY JOE ROMM POSTED ON AUGUST 12, 2014 AT 3:43 PM
Yeah Joe let’s hitch onto the coattails of a tortured suicidal soul and see if we can beat this dead climate horse just a little harder.
Given how much hot air he spouted while at the NY Times, and also now Williams has exited stage left, is Romm still The Angriest Man In Brooklyn?
I’ve more than once observed that alarmists lack any sense of humour. The interesting thing about humour is that it covers a full spectrum from the totally inappropriate to the truly hilarious. The ability to place a particular joke on that spectrum is having what the common man would call having empathy and simple good taste. Williams, always at his best doing risky improve, never missed his mark and any point he was making was done with a certain kindness.
As they’ve proved so many times with hastily withdrawn propaganda stunts, they have neither of those graces, hence the absence of humour.
Utilising what is a personal tragedy for him, his wife, their three children and the many people like us whom he gifted so many fond memories, is beneath contempt.
As a commenter on my blog observed, these people are just horrible.
Pointman
There is some evidence that Mr. Williams was engaged in auto asphyxiation.
http://xavianthaze.blogspot.com/2014/08/20-illuminating-performances-from-robin.html
David Carradine is another case.
[ Message to Tucci78: [snip – off color, repugnant, thanks to you, we’ve had to add a whole bunch of words to the moderation filter and you yourself are now on permanent moderation – Anthony] ]
clearly site moderation has suddenly stopped working. For shame Tucci78, for shame!
[snip . . OT . . mod]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Greatest_Dad
Romm using Williams sharp satire?! if so very sad ! the man is no longer he to put his argument
RIP Robin Williams.
As Robin Williams would have advised Romm for worrying to much: try Fukitol!
http://www.fukitol.com/
I don’t recall Williams chaining himself to a tree or scaling a cooling tower.
I don’t think he donned shorts and drove a rubber boat to the Arctic to protest fossil fuel.
He seemed to be active in the causes he cared about, though.
RIP Robin Williams
With all the cAGW scare stories flying around, TRUE believers must be very depressed. Don’t See them contemplating suicide. Robin Williams had a terrible illness and deserves sympathy not trolling.
Clearly the arctic is not “a pool”, clearly there has been 105 degree weather before, clearly NOTHING in his GW shtick was accurate. It was a parody, and it made alarmism look stupid and childish, and wrong. It got people laughing AT alarmism. To think that was serious was to have never learned a thing about Robin Williams’ comedy.
But, show me a “climate scientist” that ever learned a thing.
Stephen Wilde says:
August 18, 2014 at 2:46 am
Well put Stephen.
We have dozens of highly talented actors, actresses, comedian, & entertainers, who are wonderful at what they do, but it doesn’t mean they know anything about science. Scottish impressionist Alastair McGowan and English actress Emma Thompson are two in point. Both don’t want to see a third runway at Heathrow Airport, because they believe in Global Warming (curiously enough both can afford the luxury of business/first class travel). So they bought a piece of ground upon which the said runway would be built, & gave its title to some tribal elders around the globe, who I dare say would be only too happy to give it back for some super-dosh, when as it will be, is Compulsorily Purchased under that Act in due course! One of the few pieces of sensible legislation brought in, in the 1970s, under the then Labour Government, which I am sure you remember well. The opposition tried to sabotage it at the time, but never repealed it in power when they found its advantages! Bottom line, I would trust an entertainer to educate me on science, most are notorious for actually not doing terribly well at school, apart from English, & at times, not even that!