A recent conversation in my non-web life has me worried. A level-headed woman in her earlier 60’s said something to me that hurt my conservative heart. We were talking about hurricanes and the Amazon fires, and no matter what I said, I couldn’t get through her. To recap, the Amazon fires happen every year, like clockwork, and usually affect already-cleared areas. Turns out farming in the Amazon basin is not a great idea. Hurricanes have formed in the Caribbean since time immemorial, but this woman is convinced recent hurricanes are the result of anthropogenic climate change.
Evidence was–is–on my side, but persuasion is all with MSNBC. She is convinced that the environment is on the verge of collapse, and the statistics I cited just angered her. My concern is this; how many people walk this Earth believing as she does? Let me emphasize, her beliefs are reasonable. Beginning in elementary school, children are taught environmental nonsense. Their beliefs are then reinforced through high school and college, and then are implicitly taught through television news. So what if I know statistics? What do facts have to do with persuasion. Feelings don’t care about your facts, and once you buy into the environmental collapse myth, you are in for life.
This should concern us all. Her vote counts as much as my vote, or yours. Millions of people think as she does, thinking our good Green Earth is on the verge of collapse. Repeated nonsense is truth in their minds. Reality be damned.
