Britain Extends Climate Proselytisation to People with Learning Difficulties

When “inclusive” initiatives are concerned with sharing equally the terror of an imminent climate apocalypse, even among populations who should precisely be protected from media excesses and hysteria. Now some of these people, in addition to having an intellectual disability (which does not necessarily prevent them from living a happy life), will live frightened and outraged by the evil “planet destroyers.”

It all depends on how it’s done, and perhaps vulnerable people won’t be terrorized with images of hell on Earth (even though this has already been done to children for years, with the results we know), but all this kind of thing should simply be spared to people with intellectual disabilities.

Simply recommending that food be put on the compost can lead to awkward and potentially dangerous situations, and the same applies to other suggestions that require a real sense of moderation.

I’m not the least bit naïve, and perhaps I even have a somewhat twisted mind, but I find it rather disgusting to put this kind of simplistic “apocalypticism” into the heads of people with intellectual disabilities. If overly extreme messages are conveyed (everyone will die, incinerated on Earth like in a frying pan because of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming), try talking to them about paleoclimatology, logarithmic saturation, or the many biases of the IPCC and the unjustified nature of media alarmism.

Alarmists love to brandish the sacrosanct Brandolini’s law with disdain in order to try to silence skeptics without making much effort. But that very law applies in this direction as well: doing harm is very easy, and even with the best intentions in the world, once a simplistic message has been conveyed to vulnerable people, it becomes very, very, very difficult to repair the damage.

There’s a good chance they won’t listen to you if you try to reassure them with rational arguments, if frightening images and end-of-the-world clichés have been put into their heads.

Ultimately, it’s the people around them who may end up launching themselves into environmentalist crusades in the style of Extinction Rebellion, because the frightened look of the person they care for will have made them feel horribly guilty.

I have a deeply ingrained streak of pessimism, I know.