On being a big meanie

Preface: I wrote the following almost 2 weeks ago but was in no rush to wrap it up and post it as other topics came up. But I want to discuss more along the lines of what follows here so have decided to go ahead and put this up...

If this blog is ever found I would expect to see the typical criticism and concern trolling about being too harsh, rude, condescending, etc. 'You would convince more people without name-calling' is a common sort of refrain from those who refuse to be convince and earn some of those names like "denialist".

I would prefer being able to discuss only interesting real questions like, what changes will there be with tropical cyclones in a warming world? I would even not mind explaining why it is we know humans are driving substantial climate change. Those things could be done matter-of-factly to the point of blandness.

Unfortunately there is a scourge afflicting much of the discussion of climate, a scourge of lies, arrogant ignorance, distortion, and misinformation. The worst of it are the chorus of baseless accusations and declarations of deceit and fraud by scientists, which has climaxed with assertions the whole of climate science and those who work in it are rotten and corrupted.

A firm stand against this burn-it-all campaign is required.

My hope is that my posting will catch the eyes of genuinely curious people eager to actually learn about climate science and why we must address anthropogenic climate change. A major part of that must be highlighting how intellectually vacuous, incoherent, deceitful, and flat-out wrong almost all the noise is that emanates from those trying to tear down what has been learned about climate science over decades. I have come to understand too that in this environment the teaching entails holding firm being willing to swing some elbows against the slash-and-trash tactics.

That means ignorance, misrepresentations, and distortions must be pointed out clearly and not allowed at least here to propogate freely. It means not shying away from harsh descriptions of claims and actions that merit them. It means sharp counters to make it that those peddling lies that supposedly refute or overturn climate science and defaming scientists and others who understand the science should expect spotlights on and pushback against them.

I came across another blogger's take related to this that aligns quite closely with my views. It is long to be fully reposting, but I highly recommend it.