There comes a time when you just have to decide not take the abuse silently anymore, but instead, to laugh at it.
As many of you know, this is the world’s most read website about climate – by both sides. As a result, my email is like a firehose. I get a lot of legitimate email, but I also get a lot of abuse from people that think I’m not allowed to have a different opinion on all things climate; some people think I shouldn’t even be allowed to have a website or a voice. You know who you are, since WUWT is read equally by both sides daily.
Typically though, I just delete hate mail like this. Today, given a few other elements that made me laugh, and since this person is obviously ignorant, misinformed, and filled with hate, I’ve decided to publish it. It’s not like the person wasn’t warned, our WUWT contact page has this statement:
Contacts made under this form (especially hate mail and threats) are considered to be fair game for publishing, just like the “submit story” form.
So, here it is in full, with a small redaction in the email address to prevent automatic spambot harvesting. Thanks to Steve Jones for kicking off this new feature.
Name: Steve Jones
Email: sjones956 “at” yahoo.com
Message: Koch brother shills like you should be ashamed of themselves for spewing such anti-science garbage for the goal of deceiving the public about global warming. Sickening…
Time: May 12, 2015 at 8:35 am
IP Address: 76.216.173.235
Contact Form URL: http://wattsupwiththat.com/about-wuwt/contact-2/
Sent by an unverified visitor to your site.
For the record, I’ve never gotten a dime from the Koch Brothers, and never even had an email, telephone, or face-to-face conversation with them. I doubt they even know of my existence. I find this fascination the left has with the Koch Brothers a revealing window into their psyche.
But, that fact that I’m not now, nor ever have been on the take on in employ of Koch (or anyone else for that matter) doesn’t seem to stop the irrational hatred we see on display. Even supposedly educated people like Dr. Michael Mann falls victim to Koch Derangement Syndrome, such as when I sent him a free Josh calendar at Christmas, paid for by my own credit card:
Read it here: Too Funny! I send Michael Mann a free WUWT calendar as a Christmas gift, and he goes full conspiracy theory
This isn’t an isolated incident in Dr. Mann’s delusional missives:
I find it all highly amusing, because they can’t envision that I’m able to run WUWT simply on my own merits, without having some sort of daily backing or being in the employ of somebody, somebody with an agenda. They can’t imagine that I’ve been able to succeed by sheer will and persistence, along with the help of guest authors, and millions of readers. No, they can’t imagine that, because for them, it’s the ultimate projection.
So the best medicine for such things is to laugh at them, and that’s what I plan to do. Perhaps I’ll gather up each week’s hate mail and make a weekly feature of it.
As my friend Barry Woods said today, we seem to have reached “peak climate”, hence the increase in irrational wailing:
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Anthony, perhaps you’ll have to make a submit page for us to submit the craziest AGW comments we find AGW True Believers posting in various places, and then put a bunch of the “best” (e.g., craziest/nastiest) of those together. Some of those are truly mind boggling.
By coincidence I just fired off a comment on an article quoting a Papal Spokesperson that decried the capitalist motives of groups personified by Heartland that were funded by the Kochs. (I hope you were not offended, Anthony, that he did not mention you.) I suggested we discuss facts and science and not motives and reminded them that although the brothers gave Heartland thousands (and not for global warming) and Soros, Steyer, and the US government funded alarmists with mega millions, this is all irrelevant with respect to the data and science.
Can you give a link to this article, or was it not on the internet?
Air it, I say. Let them be shown for what they are.
Hate replaces debate.
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/11/rebecca-roaches-potty-time.html
That Uni Oxford site should be calle “Practically NO Ethics”.
Sigh. Real progressives don’t use the braindead multibillion time-thieve called Facebook for liking and not liking stuff.
Nice!
Harvesting in a different form. I am certain this will alter the levels of incoming mail of this sort.
Book’em Dano!
Maybe a separate section to publish all of the hate mail, with the best bits brought out once a week or at irregular intervals.
Well, while I admire your spirit, Anthony, let me be the one to decry the sad state of affairs in which we find ourselves. Here is Anthony Watts, holding forth a viewpoint on climate change with attendant supporting research, and soliciting additional factual information, pro or con, from others. A subset of those who disagree with his stance feel compelled to launch libelous ad hominem attacks besmirching his character.
This is dreadful, and terribly disappointing. Civil discourse among people of good conscience should never stoop so low. It seems his opponents’ reasons range from simple misinformation and ignorance all the way to base avarice.
My hope, as I continue to read WUWT daily, is that all who post here take note of this malicious behavior, and couch their own commentary such that they take the high road.
This climate change foolishness will burn itself out in the years to come. We here all know that, and those who currently support the agenda de jour know it as well. Comments on the internet, however, are forever. I, myself, don’t want to be ashamed of what I leave behind.
Others who contemplate sending insulting juvenile drivel via electronic means may want to take note.
Keep up the good work, Mr. Watts. Another donation is on the way.
Good points, all. I note your comment that “Civil discourse among people of good conscience should never stoop so low.”
you are correct; but then, we are not dealing with “people of good conscience”.
Rather no conscience at all. I once consulted for a food company that was irked by the negative Yelp reviews they got, and found that we could get them to retract their negative comments and post 5 star reviews for a mere free dinner. That was years ago, and now restaurants report that it is common for diners to negotiate free food in return for a favorable review, using the threat of a bad one if we don’t play along
You know, I’ve always been confused about the Koch Brothers. I had never heard of them until a radical environmentalist friend of mine accused me of being their mindless minion. My crime? I gave him a pocket Constitution as a little gift.
So they are each worth roughly $50 billion. So what? Two-bit shyster Bernie Madoff ran a scam valued at about $65 billion. And he’s just a simpleton who actually got caught. What about the criminal mafia running the FED and Treasury? Those thugs doled out $22 trillion to their fellow tribalists under the guise of ‘saving the world from total financial meltdown. Talk about the syndrom of von Munchhausen by proxy! And what about the network protecting them at every level — the commodity exchanges, the investment banks, the SEC, the judiciary?
The Koch Brothers? Give. Me. A. Break.
On a recent post I mentioned the K-bros, as did another comment:
See: ‘ nutso fasst May 7, 2015 at 6:04 pm ‘
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/05/07/heartland-replies-to-jeffrey-sachs/
My comment was quite general, at 11:05 pm in response to ‘ jeanparisot ‘ at 5:09.
I’ll see your Koch brothers and raise you one Soros and another Tom Steyer on top of that!
None of this has anything to do with the data and the science.
Also, TIDES Foundation, leftist money laundering machine.
http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/op_23.pdfIt was in excess of $29 trillion. Links included therein to the original study and associated papers.
What’s a few trillion amongst friends…
Max, My thinking exactly. The outcry was underwhelming when Royal Dutch Shell’s application to drill in Alaska got an approving nod from Obama. Standard Oil doesn’t seem to have much trouble in Jerry Brown’s California either. British Petroleum has pretty well managed to tamp down all that bad press in the Caribbean (well,of course, it is Louisiana after all so spreading money around gets the political machinery there to run things like a Somali war lord at a food distribution center). So what did the Koch brothers do to become the poster children for “Big Oil”
Provide people with energy.
As a long-time libertarian, I actually voted for a Koch brother once. In 1982, when he was Ron Paul’s running mate. David. Didn’t make a deep impression at the time. Good to know he’s been promoted to supervillian
I try to make a daily visit to Romm’s “Think Progress” (euphemism of the day) just to check out the cuckoo’s nest. Their commenters are sinking ever deeper into frank lunacy, not only with Koch delusion but also the wild claims of science being on their side. “Stupid” is their favorite response to anyone providing counter argument to the Romm dogma. Actually. it’s quite sad.
I was certain after Climategate that Warmist claims would become increasingly bizarre, inaccurate, and insane. There was no place for their malarkey to go otherwise. No good arguments means they must rely totally on lies, ad hominems, red herrings, strawmen, and non-sequiturs.
This whole Global Warming debate reminds me of the Cold Fusion debacle. When the chemists Fleischmann–Pons claimed room temperature fusion everyone got excited. When physicists asked about neutron production in their experiments, the excitement just plain died. When I started studying the Global Warming problem I thought there is nothing to it. WOW! When you see deniers’ personalities being attacked, rather than scientific arguments being presented, you know something is wrong, drastically wrong.
The problem will eventually sort itself out, but at what cost? Fossil fuels will never ever go away! Nuclear energy is a must to maintain our present standard of living. My choice is thorium reactors. Alternative fuels are nice but will never produce enough.
HUMANITY – Just suck it up and deal with it. Climate is here to stay, good bad or indifferent.
OH, thank you Mr. Watts for being a thorn in the warmist’s sides.
Ralph
Ralph– The empirical evidence and physics now show CAGW hypothetical projections to be off by as much as an order of magnitude….
We’ve experienced roughly 0.8C of global warming since the end of the Little Ice Age and no global warming trend for almost 20 years, despite 30% of all manmade CO2 emissions since 1750 being emitted over just the last 20 years or so…
Already CAGW hypothetical model projections are off by about 2 standard deviations and in 5~7 years, the discrepancies will likely exceed 3 SDs, for a quarter of a century, which should be sufficient to end the CAGW hypothesis for good.
All CAGW’s other dire projections of: severe weather incidence/intensity, ocean pH, polar ice caps, crop yields, etc. are also hilariously off and becoming more inaccurate with each passing year.
You’re correct about thorium, however. China now plans to have a working large-scale MSR design ready in about 8 years, which will have incredible economic and societal benefits.
Fossil fuels will be replaced by cheaper more abundant alternative energy sources when it makes economic sense to do so. Governments are TERRIBLE at picking winners and losers. Just let the free-market decide the timing.
Ralph– I re-read your post.
Sorry… I initially thought you were saying CAGW had merit.
My bad.
Ralph, you are absolutely right. There is a distinct similarity between global warming “science” and the cold fusion “debacle”. Both are influenced by the vested interests of establishment science. Global warming is perpetuated by the needs of “climate scientists” to obtain funding. Cold fusion was killed off by those in the hot fusion fraternity who saw their billions of grants disappearing.
Suggest you have a look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjvL4zNLOGw
The phenomenon demonstrated by Fleischmann and Pons is real. It is a different sort of nuclear reaction, as yet not understood, which does not generate the neutrons you mention in any great quantity. Those neutrons illustrate another similarity: theory being used to override observation – how often do we see that in climate science?
It reminds me more of the Low Fat debacle, which is why I am not sanguine about CAGWs demise. After the long term Framingham study (and others) showed that low fat diets absolutely increase death rate from heart disease and collaterally cause diabetes, the cabal of the government, foundations, and the food industry maintain the fatal prescription of low fat diets. Being right is not enough, on its own, to stop the madness. There are trillions yet to be made, vast power yet to be seized, and such a behemoth is not easily stopped.
The more vile the hate mail gets, the nearer to the target you’re getting, methinks.
https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/the-joy-of-moderation/
Pointman
Pointman doesn’t like it when you point out that the Right has its own anti-science faction. The people who dislike the mention of 2AG and its receptors. Or the use of its plant analogs in medicine.
You are doing a public service by publishing these emails, my friend. Who else can they lash out at that would give them such a forum? Free therapy courtesy of the Koch brothers.
Frankly speaking, this is a GREAT IDEA so please continue to do so.
I blog on the ‘Connected Community’ website of the Geological Society of America. Here are two items that posters have said in response to my posts:
1). This poster must be on the payroll of the Koch brothers.”
2). When posting a link to a video by Svensmark, the comment was made I was doing “science by U-tube.”
Perhaps with each weekly summary of your hate-emails, can you provide a place to post ours?
George – they’re taking it personally – that is a good sign, science is impersonal …
Light-hearted laughter (silly-stupid comments); witty,ironic responses (when the comment invites being turned back on the author); ridiculing laughter (to cleanse the soul of filth) — all are fair game. Use your judgment, Anthony. “The most-read science blog” gives you not only leeway, but an invitation to express all your enjoyable inventiveness.
Hey, love that top image. Scroll it up and down and watch it spin like a climate alarmista.
Can someone send AW a bag of salt, so he can keep rubbing it into their wounds 🙂
“…a bag of salt, …”
A bag? Might need a truck load?
Does this mean they will be all published in a special area?
Leftwingers cannot abide free speech. And it’s getting worse. Obama has just announced his intention to force people with diverse thoughts to align their thoughts with his thoughts.
If you want to escape his wrath, I guess you need to hang a swastika flag outside your window?
Sieg Heil.
David Cameron seems to be ready to forbid any speech he doesn’t like, as well.
Oh, come on! I’m no supporter of Cameron, but that’s just plain daft. As he said yesterday, we’ve been too tolerant for too long. It’s liberalism that has given Britain its current ills. As much as it pains me to say it, you can’t just say whatever you like (and believe me, that was hard for me to say!). Never mind the pathetic people who are just looking to be offended, and I am a ardent supporter of Katie Hopkins for saying it as it is (I love the woman), and I even think you should be able to draw Mohammed cartoons. But to preach hate is just a step too far. There are some speeches that just should not be allowed. George Galloway, with his rabid ramblings, comes too close at times. How can one hate the Jews (or rather Israel)?
I am not a Labour supporter. I do not live in Britain, and I do not vote in British elections. I do wonder who will decide which speech will be permitted, and which won’t. Will it be people who cannot distinguish between hatred of Jews and criticism of Israeli war crimes? People who cannot stand criticism of the Man-Made Global Warming story? Who will be the government censors?
Specifically what announcement was that?
Chris – poor RoHa is just another disgruntled Labour supporter who **still** hasn’t gotten over the devastating loss the lefties experienced in the recent election…
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
Michael Mann, to his ironic misfortune, is quite possibly the greatest billboard and marketing machine of the very enemy he taunts and hides from. Taunts run through schoolyard use of bully-boy social media, hidden (running) from intellectual and reasoned debate.
Before pressing send on the keyboard, has ‘Dr’ Mann ever queries to himself “would Albert send hate and smear out like this or….?” I think perhaps not. Ever.
Dear Mike, “What others say and do is a projection of their own reality…” Ruiz
Many thanks Anthony and to all who post on your site for keeping us informed. As stated earlier you are over the target and they don’t like it one bit.
Take care. RobinW
Anthony, there may be a reason why many Progressive Socialist “Warmist” think you receive funds from the Koch brothers. Media Matters, a far left socialist web site got started with George Soro’s money when Clinton’s “blue dress” come to life. Now, anytime anybody gets under their skin they blame the Koch Brothers
Its like blaming Co2 for chicken pox with them.
If it makes you feel better, publish it, but only rarely. After all, it’s drivel, and not the kind of content that has me coming back here.
Well said pochas. I fully agree. It’s not the kind of stuff I come here for either. But more to the point, don’t feed these pathetic trolls. They love the attention and they’ll just write more often.
I have to say I agree too David.
As do I…
It will turn into a contest for them, and likely double the volume of drivel.
Heckler and Koch. What an ironic name.
Of couse they think that about you Anthony. Everything lefty does is subsidized from every ridiculous govt program to leftist radio to move on.org. So naturally they can’t even conceive of something self sustaining which of course is ironic since sustainability is such a leftist buzzword.
Anthony.
Global Warming enthusiasts cannot stand to be laughed at, they are impervious to everything but laughter. Not being taken seriously is their Achilles Heel.
Very good point, Mariss.
I also agree, humor is the best weapon in our armory.
projection?
ADW is taken serious by all scientific institutiosn and universities around the planet. WUWT is taken serious by whom?
Voters and taxpayers, Power to the People.
Anthony, The weekly “lame of the week” post will probably be a hit feature.
I, for example, can’t wait for it!