Climate scientists first laughed at a ‘bizarre’ campaign against the BoM – then came the harassment (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by quitenormal@lemmy.world to c/australia@aussie.zone

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[-] Mountaineer@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

This is a very specific and nasty example of a trend I've witnessed becoming common on a whole bunch of issues: climate, health, economy, pedophilia, etc etc.

Useful idiots online are spreading "I'm just asking questions" garbage about "pizza gate" and the "covid hoax" and the "climate hoax" etc etc, and anyone who has to deal with this just gets beaten down and withdraws their participation.

I don't even know who the hell could possibly benefit from damaging the BOM/CSIRO, without some multi-party and honestly contradictory conspiracy of china + russia + resource companies.

[-] Ilandar@aussie.zone 18 points 1 year ago

Useful idiots online are spreading “I’m just asking questions” garbage about “pizza gate” and the “covid hoax” and the “climate hoax” etc etc, and anyone who has to deal with this just gets beaten down and withdraws their participation.

And then there are all the people who pretend to be useful idiots and heavily imply stuff whilst being careful never to explicitly say it. When you call them out, they turn around and use the "well I never said that" defence and pretend they are engaging in good faith. If you keep nailing them, eventually they have some mask off moment where they slip up and reveal their true character. We've seen quite a few of those here recently with the Voice discussion.

[-] Garper@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ah yes. The card says moops

[-] Ilandar@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah that summarises it quite well. I guess the left leaning equivalent of this is when people are too quick to put you in a box and won't actually give you the benefit of doubt to argue your position in good faith.* They are both big issues with online discourse and why I generally try to push people a bit so they have a chance to prove whether they are just ignorant or if there's actually malicious intent behind what they're saying.

*And I make that criticism of the left as someone who is very left leaning myself. It pains me to see people undermine their arguments (or completely fail to make them) by stooping to the levels of the alt-right.

[-] gotnuffin@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Big oil, coal and gas via sympathetic media (read greedy). They have thrown money and pundits at it for so long, not sure they could stop even if they wanted to.

By this point though you'd think they'd pack it up, as blind Freddy can see the writing is on the wall. But I watched FOX roll out Steve Milloy to say the Canadian wildfire smoke was no threat to humans a couple of weeks back. Steve Milloy has been called out as a climate denier since the '90s yet they still use him.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Milloy

There are many more of them, it's fun playing spot the denier disguised as an expert in the media but ultimately it is sole destroying knowing how far they have infiltrated and destroyed legitimate science and the public's perception.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/05/double-agent-fossil-fuel-lobbyists

https://www.desmog.com/2023/07/27/fossil-fuel-oil-gas-giants-shell-bp-using-british-influencers-to-go-viral/

https://www.desmog.com/2023/07/26/doj-investigation-big-oil-climate-deception-congressional-democrats/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/07/climate-solutions-big-oil-ipcc-report

[-] RustyRaven@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago

I'm guessing it was a technique they perfected nagging their parents for lollies and they have just never learned any better ways of engaging with society.

[-] Nihilore@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

only tangentially related but a mate of mine is a radar tech for the BoM and is a climate change denier. figure that one out

[-] Marsupial@quokk.au 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why are you mates with a fucking idiot?

[-] Ilandar@aussie.zone -2 points 1 year ago

Some of us don't base our entire identities and relationships around a single thing.

[-] Marsupial@quokk.au 9 points 1 year ago

It’s a pretty telling sign the person is a fucking moron, something that flows into every aspect of their lives.

[-] Ilandar@aussie.zone -4 points 1 year ago

It really isn't. People believe all sorts of weird and stupid things, often in isolation of everything else that makes up their character and life. I would definitely never go full cancel culture on a friend who happened to disagree with me on a single issue - particularly if that issue was something as irrelevant to our relationship as climate science.

[-] Marsupial@quokk.au 5 points 1 year ago

Climate change is one of the biggest issues in the world right now and is killing thousands with billions to come.

It’s not like they prefer pineapple on their pizza, to be a climate change denier is no different than a holocaust denier and I’d end a friendship over that as well.

[-] Ilandar@aussie.zone -1 points 1 year ago

to be a climate change denier is no different than a holocaust denier

lol

[-] Gibsonisafluffybutt@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago

Don't bother. These peoples entire personalities revolve around how much better their farts smell than other people's.

[-] Ilandar@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah it's a shame. If more people ventured outside of their bubbles and actually interacted with others in the real world then we probably wouldn't have such a toxic, polarised society. You don't change people's opinions by cutting them off, and hoping they magically disappear doesn't work either.