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:
So if Charles Koch gifts hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Heartland Institute- which has an express purpose to create misinformation about AGW, and then the Heartland Institute pays you, is that accepting money from the Koch Brothers?
[my, what an ignoramus you are. Read this essay: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/05/07/heartland-replies-to-jeffrey-sachs/ note this part:
No wonder you hide behind a fake name and fake email. -mod]
The mod already showed you that made stuff is not the same as facts. Asserting Heartland Institutes has the express purpose of creating misinformation is also not a fact. You could say they are a bunch of dumb-asses which would be your opinion. Distinguishing facts from fiction from opinion is not always easy but a virtue worth developing.
The reasoning is also faulty. If one takes money out of their bank and buys an iPhone made in china, does that mean iPhone buyers and their bank support communism? In other words simply finding ties with various degrees of separation and disconnected purposes is not basis to come up with any old conclusion that comes to mind.
The day I’ll be concerned about ANYTHING the Koch brothers do is the day when I hear that people with fake names and e-mail addresses, like Mr. Husky, are concerned about what people like George Soros and Tom Steyer do…
I have enjoyed the company of people who worked for the Koch brothers at a level where they met them on a regular basis. They are well informed, intelligent individuals so I am sure that they are aware of WUWT. It is unfortunate that the environmentalist witch-hunt would prevent them from supporting a good cause like your website.
A lie may go around the world before the truth gets its boots on, but the truth will get there eventually.
The question is how much damage does the lie do on its trip around the world.
Political campaigns know this, and really do not mind being caught in a lie, (if caught rephrased as mis-spoke, mis-understood, out of context, staffer gets fired, not relevant, etc) because the purpose of a lie is to do damage and create weakness. If the lie goes away after awhile, fine, no problem, job is done.
The term climate denier is designed to tie people who do not support AGW alarmism to people who deny science. On YouTube there are many videos including from respected sources like Dr. Eugenie Scott, tying people who find insufficient evidence for alarmism to fundamental creationists. As ridiculous and non-factual or better put, blatantly dishonest that view is, the damage is done and takes a lot of effort to overcome.
In politics lies work more often than not.
Let’s have some fun here with one of Phil Jones distant relations shall we? Although I’ve donated previously and will again I’ve just tossed in $1USD on behalf of Steve Jones ruminations and request the rest of you Koch Brothers do likewise. Let’s see what one dollar votes we come up with to really pee Steve Yahoo off and continue his downward spiral into the vortex of warmenist conspiracy theories.
I like this – especially publishing IP addresses. This isn’t some stupid TV show – there’s no dark web. These people can’t hide. It would be added fun to build a Google map with push pins that map these idiots in real time.
I read how the Koch Bros have an “unholy alliance” with Monsanto to stop passage of GMO labeling laws. A bit of research shows this to be an outright lie, repeated ad nauseam on tens of thousands of loony-left web pages. The ONLY connection is that both Monsanto and Koch subsidiary Georgia-Pacific belong to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, whose 275 other members include Heinz (Berkshire Hathaway), Tree Top, Sun Maid, Ralston, Ocean Spray, General Electric, and Microsoft,
Suggest reading The Truly Daffy Demonization of the Brothers Koch by Jack Cashill, then compare the Koch’s contributions to society with Tom Steyer’s..
As Richard Muller will attest, there is no shame in accepting grant money from a Koch charitable foundation.
I enjoyed the idiocy displayed by Mr. Jones and of course Dr. Mann is always entertaining. As to the Koch Bros. comments, I decided to respond in the only meaningful way possible, I flung funds.
This sounds like a wonderful weekly entry.
Leftists have always found scapegoats to blame for their failures rather than learning the ultimate lesson that command and control economies/science/societies/governments don’t work; at least not well, anyway…
The petrochemical process patents held by the Koch Brothers have helped save the global economy $trillions over the decades, and for these contributions to society, they are demonized.
The relatively minuscule amount of donations the Koch Brothers give to Libertarian causes is a drop in the ocean compared to the massive propaganda machines of leftists: governments, public schools, universities, NGOs, George Soros, political parties, bureaucrats, govt agencies, MSM, Hollywood, newspapers, books, UN, magazine public/private-sector unions, ad nauseam.
The inevitable disconfirmation of the CAGW hypothesis will hopefully enlighten more people that command and control societies/economies/science/governments don’t work. Free markets, free people, freedom of ideas, free speech and limited governments are what will prevent scandals like CAGW from occurring in the future.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”~ George Santayana
You can add the scary Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to that list. Their billions are increasingly bypassing elected Governments in order to push their ‘liberal’ agenda: supra-national government via the UN and a raft of leftist policies, inc forced immunisation and dubious contraception for the Third World, and mandated action on CAGW
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/the-ambitions-of-bill-and-melinda-gates-controlling-population-and-public-education
http://naturalsociety.com/big-owner-monsanto-shares-bill-gates-depopulation-agenda-exposed/
Ref: Nutso Fasst’s post (two above) – in case anyone wondered why Microsoft should be admitted as a member of the US Grocery Manufacturers Association: Gates is a major shareholder in GMO /pesticide manufacturer Monsanto, which has been attempting for many years to corner the world food supply. And if TPP is agreed they will succeed.
Gates also furthers his agenda by persuading Govts to adopt his Common Core educational curriculum, which is nothing but a vehicle for left-liberal propaganda
The Koch brothers are but minnows in the pool of agenda-driven funding, compared with the billions expended by Gates in pursuit of his leftist agenda
Perhaps put the posts on a separate tab. I had the misfortune to work ar a non-union job where backstabbing was an art form. I found the best defense for an unhinged email was to forward it to my boss with a cc to the sender. The subject was “Forwarded without comment”. By the way, my union was really different from the UAW or th SEIU, or the Teamsters.
How about you let us vote for the funniest one each month?
Useful idiots , as Stalin described them , should be rewarded with some exposure . Praise them into the grave like a father accelarating the image of the unwanted lover of his daughter .
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, for the well placed sniper shots. Once a week would be just lovely…but don’t hesitate, in between, to take time out to publish a real gem….Craig
Lots of people payed by the taxpayer cannot imagine that some people have to get by solely due to their own initiative, hard-work and persistence.
Michael Mann, like most of the so-called “human beings,” uses himself as a measuring stick when he sizes up other people. That’s why he is so sure that Mr. Watts is being financed by some shady ideological outfit — because that’s exactly how Michael Mann gets his support.
I, on the other hand, tend to overestimate other people most of the time.
I modestly wonder why.
It’s the same syndrome as prosecutors always suspecting everyone of doing something wrong. When you deal with pigs all day, everyone resembles a pig.
But think of the kittens and puppies…!
Take care with this new policy or this mob will have Lew, with able assistants Cook and Oreskes, quickly on the job for very, very thorough analysis (5 mins!), create a fanciful psychological paradigm and publish another BS paper.
This could become an infinite iteration as you will publish their work and Lew then does more analysis and publishing and so on.
Only sad part is the reality of how much research funding is being wasted on idiocy.
Two insightful comments stay in mind:
Joe Bastardi commenting that Dr M Mann should learn how to read a weather map
and (sorry I can’t recall the commenter)
alarmist climatologists either have an agenda or are imbeciles.
Just about sums up my thoughts on the whole game. Thank you and keep up the good work.
There are a lot of Steve Jones out there, largely sad little people desperately looking for a cause to justify their existence. In this case, it is ‘Save the World’ syndrome – “look at me, I am special, I am trying to save the world from global warming.”
Religious cults and extremist groups prey on their type if they have half a chance.
Victor Davis Hanson’s Private Papers does somewhat the same thing under the heading ‘Angry Readers’. He skewers them.
Mike
I didn’t know about the Angry Readers section, I’ll have to check it out.
By the way, for any reading this who don’t know Victor Davis Hanson, check out his website. I personally think he does the best analysis of our current/past political/cultural problems. Truly a gem!
I wonder why the same people who accuse every disbeliever in their AGW cult of being funded by the fuel industry have no guilt in extorting money from people like myself who believe that climate scientists should be tested on the accuracy of their predictions on a five year average and dismissed if they fail to meet the grade. A fair test is they should have the same percentage accuracy as the percentage who claim the science is right.
We do not believe but are actually forced under threat of imprisonment to fund these charlatans through taxation we are unwilling but forced to pay.
Sorry Steve Jones but you and your kind are not only morons but a blackmailers and since you rely on threats to extort the money for your cult also are vile crooks unless you can prove the pattern of temperature before any adjustments matches reality.
Whoopee! I can get my hate mail published at last. I don’t actually hate anyone right now, but as soon as I do, I know exactly where to send some rude remarks.
Even if you don’t hate anyone right now, there are still plenty left to hate.
Hate is a terrible thing. I am glad to say I don’t hate anything or anyone (except child-killers).
“ a revealing window into their psyche.”
Céline, the admired and hated French author, once said to one of his insulters (and he had quite a few): “You must have dug well at the bottom of yourself to find such horrors to say.”
Personal and Social Correlates of the ‘Closed Mind’ among 16 Year Old Adolescents in England
Leslie J. Francisa
The data demonstrate that higher dogmatism scores are associated with lower IQ scores, lower social class backgrounds, higher neuroticism scores, higher lie scale scores and being male.
What’s wrong with dogmatism if you know you’re right?
Anthony Watts, you have incredibly thick skin to be able to take all the abuse they toss at you. If anyone looked up those who, in the annals of science, are epic in their commitment and determination to keep at it for so long withstanding so much abuse you’d be prominently in that Parthenon. You are an inspiration. Thank you.
I meant “you’d be prominently in that pantheon”, but Parthenon works too. Thanks again for everything you do.
Hey Anthony, which day of the week you putting up the flamers emails? Just lets me organise my popcorn making days better.