Climate Conspiracy

Journalist and activist George Monbiot wrote on why we can't actually explain the problems with certain arguments anymore:

Conspiracy fictions have succeeded, as Steve Bannon hoped, in "flooding the zone with shit". It is almost impossible now to have a rational conversation about the real sources of oppression, destruction and injustice, as so many have been so badly misled. Climate science denial has come roaring back, though the evidence of climate breakdown is now all around us. 

It's a tragedy: we need to unite around the greatest predicament humanity has ever faced, but millions have been persuaded that it isn't happening. 

Bannon was one of Trump's advisors. There was a conversation between them (that I'll never find now), from early on in Trump's first run, with Bannon decidedly convincing Trump of the benefits to his campaign if he's openly racist. I'm almost positive it happened, but it was possibly a nightmare.

I wrote about Bannon's propaganda efforts over six years ago. Now we can see it all come to fruition as nothing makes sense.

Monbiot links to this Guardian article: "Quarter in UK believe Covid was a hoax." Here are the stats from a survey conducted in April:

Beliefs were developed through social media - mainly YouTube and Facebook, and websites like Breitbart, which was run by Steve Bannon. On Monday, Bannon called Dr. Peter Hotez a criminal on social media. Hotez asked, 

"Is it because I co-developed a low-cost patent-free Covid vaccine for poor nations, and provided proof-of-concept that we don't have to rely on Big Pharma. Or was it talking to the nation several times a day on cable news channels (with no pay) explaining why hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin has no benefits for Covid? And watch out for those who promote it? Or was it explaining how Covid vaccines will save your life, especially during our nation's horrible delta wave and BA.1 waves in 2021-22? Or is it in anticipation of my forthcoming book that explains why those who pushed hydroxy/ivermectin or those who actively sought to discredit vaccines actually killed Americans? 40,000 unnecessary deaths in my state of Texas, 200,000 nationally? Just awful, really terrible for the nation, for humanity, for our future."

Abbie Richards created this Conspiracy Chart a couple years ago (the link has sources), and it still applies, but now we can add a few more items, like walkable cities conspiracy in the pink and maybe Covid herd immunity, hydroxychloroquine, and ivermectin in the orange

The concern I have isn't so much with the general public believing curious things, that's always been the case, it's just louder now and spreads a bit further than it used to because of the internet. The problem is when we hear it from people in positions of power, like Trump, but also like several current Canadian premiers who are absolutely destroying our country. 

In Ontario, Ford is fast-tracking development, sending more sewage into Lake Ontario, selling off the Greenbelt to his buddies, provoking a steep increase in natural gas use, and making it easier to build on formerly protected wetlands and farmland. And most recently, he refused the call, from Marit Stiles, to link wildfires to climate change, insisting it's "politicizing wildfires" to acknowledge any connection. He claims fires are started by lightening or poorly extinguished campfires, but misses the whole piece about the trees and ground being so bone dry that they don't stand a chance against the smallest spark. 

We don't stand a chance.