Shellenberger on Biden's Woke Green Energy Fantasy

This is almost certainly right:

If renewables are doomed for fundamental physical reasons, why do so many educated people believe we will transition to them? Most are just ignorant. They have been surrounded by professional ideologues who have deceived them for decades. They insist that the US will somehow be able to quickly build the massive solar factories, rare earth mines and mineral refiners that took China 20 years to build.

Most educated people aren't educated at all about climate nor energy. "Educated" now--with respect to such issues--really means: indoctrinated into the fantasies of the left. (In this case: liberals as well as progressives, unfortunately.) They do not understand how dicey "the science" on climate is...must less on warming...much less on anthropogenic warming. They do not understand what a boon to humanity fossil fuels are--even taking their climate costs into account. And they don't understand the costs and problems associated with alleged "green" energy sources. They are subject to pervasive propaganda to the effect that we're on the brink of an apocalypse, science-fiction energy sources can save us, and only the stupidity of conservatives and the greed of oil companies stands in the way. When you are allowed to hear--and allow yourself to consider--only one side of the issues...and when all the strength of the considerations are all wildly exaggerated...you end up with a fantastically counterfactual view. In fact, the reasonable view here is that of people like Shellenberger and Musk: there are a lot of reasons to work toward a future in which fossil fuels play a much smaller role. But we are not teetering on the edge of apocalypse. And the pretense that we are has become at least as dangerous as climate change itself. It's making us do very, very stupid and harmful things.

Important New Paper Challenges IPCC on Climate Sensitivity

link

As always, I acknowledge that I'm in no position to make the kinds of judgments that experts make on AGW. But, from the perspective of a well-informed layperson, it's pretty clear that "the science" is not "settled." 

My own view is, of course, that the view being represented as the consensus is shifted pretty far to the hysterical end of the spectrum. When you--or at least when I--dig into the arguments that I can somewhat understand, it all seems pretty messy and guessy. Overall, the discussion about AGW looks an awful lot like other discussions of leftist articles of faith that have been infected by political correctness / Lysenkoism. The left is quasi-religiously committed to climate apocalypticism, and, if that were subtracted from the discussion, we'd be having a much more rational and temperate discussion. 

Psaki: "The Gloves are Off"

Where, pray tell, were these alleged gloves previously?

   Like when you-all were manufacturing a conspiracy among the FBI, the media and the Democrat party to falsely portray Trump as a Russian "asset"? Or you were encouraging leftist mobs to attack American cities? Or mobilizing law enforcement against your political opposition? Or when the President of the United States was calling us "semi-Fascist"? Or when the state was classifying parents as terrorists for opposing the sexual mutilation of their children?

   The left doesn't believe in using "gloves." It's a totalitarian ideology. Gloves are for liberals. To the Woketarian cult, it's all life or death.

Charles Lipson: Resoring Free Speech At Our Universities

Exactly right.

It's Always a Threat to Democracy When the Left Loses

Biden's an embarrassment.

YouTube Demonetizes TK News for Posting 5 Minute Video of Democrats Claiming 2016 Election Was "Hacked"/Illegitimate

Because facts don't real:

RIP Coolio

One of my absolute, all time faves:

Bari Weiss: The Great Canadian Mass Graves Hoax

Shades of the Satanic Panic.

Lysenkoism, Inflation and Self-Censorship in Economics

link

Taibbi on Snowden and The Washington Post Dabbling in Orwell

Boy was I ever wrong about Snowden. I said some really stupid things about this case. 

I still don't understand it well enough.

But here's Matt Taibbi saying some smart things about the case. (Probably behind a paywall.)

Man Wins Women's Frisbee Golf Division

Hardly news anymore, especially giving all the more profound ways in which autogynephiliacs are pushing women out of their own activities and "spaces" (though I'm sick of that use of the term). 

   And, y'know, they're men. Stop with the gyrations to avoid saying that. They're not merely "male-bodied" nor whatnot. They're men. They aren't "transwomen" nor any other kind of woman. They're men (mis)representing themselves as women. If the term "transwomen" is used at all, it should be explicitly defined so as to make it clear that it means, roughly, pseudowomen--men falsely representing themselves as women. 

   Frisbee golf doesn't matter to me. But facts do.

Hurricane --> GLOBAL WARMING

I haven't tuned into the MSM recently, but I presume there's plenty of hysteria about Ian being some sort of proof of climate change. I doubt they've gone so far around the bend as to be willing to float "white supremacy" causes hurricanes...but I have no doubt there's plenty of women and minorities hit hardest..

NYC Mayor Adams: People Do Not Respond to Incentives

Or, more specifically: NYC being a sanctuary city does not increase illegal immigration.

   Actually, he could be right about this--NYC in particular being a "sanctuary city" may not act as much of an incentive. But it undoubtedly does to some extent. The real problem, though, probably isn't NYC's policies, but Biden's. He basically said "come on in"...and that's the blue-team's attitude in brief. Because, of course, any regulations on immigration are racist, racist. 

   My own view is that we should have a running estimate of the number of illegal aliens entering the country, and should decrease legal immigration on the basis of that number. This year legal immigration would be reduced to zero and we'd still be over "budget."

   The best system, of course, is the one advocated by ordinary people--i.e. non-progressives: a generous legal immigration system together with strict laws against illegal immigration.

" " " GOP Redoubles Efforts To Tie Democrats To High Crime Rates" " "

LOLOLOL

Three sets of scare quotes required for this piece of progressive fanfic. 

RAYSIS! TRUMP! INSURRECTION! ABORTION! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Jeez. Did I used to fall for stuff like this? I do realize that the contemporary Dems are continuous with the Dems of back when I voted for them...but Clinton (B) had tamped down the Dems' pro-crime tendencies...hadn't he? 

I mean, for purposes of elections, it's good that the Democrat Party and the Democrat Party Extended, including, of course, the MSM, refuse to acknowledge that it's the Democrats who are tying Democrats to high crime rates... 

But for purposes of governing, one does hope that the Dems come to their senses...or, at least, that enough sane and liberal Dems abandon the blue ship of fools.

As usual, one thing that really stands out to me--unrepresented in ordinary discussions like this one--is that the progressive/Democrat vanguard is not just insufficiently anti-crime, it is pro-crime. The aim is the destruction of the status quo. Of course the average progressive in the street does not share that view. But the vanguard leads them along with softer versions of the view that emphasize false claims about police racism and violence, squishy claims about "mass incarceration," and other such bleeding-heart appeals. But both versions of the story lead to perdition.

So long as the middlebrow left can be got to oppose x merely by asserting that it's racist, the left is doomed to effective insanity. 

Undermining K-12 Students' Sense of Citizenship in Military Base Schools

It's long been unclear to me to what extent it's permissible to use K-12 to foster commitment to the nation. I remain torn on that question. But promoting the illiberal irrationalism of contemporary progressive racist "anti-racism"...that's right out.

Greenwald: Democrats Aim To Criminalize Opposition

I can't stress this enough: at its core, Democratic politics is about criminalizing opposition to their party and ideology.

Dissenting ideas are "disinformation" and must be censored by Big Tech. Trump voters are inherently criminal ("insurrectionists") and should be imprisoned.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 24, 2022

[Addendum: that's just one aspect of progressivism's totalitarianism. It's very clear this is happening, and I'd say this marks a movement away from soft totalitarianism toward the hard variety.] 

Climate-Change Causes Teh HATSBEEJ

Political correctness = prope-Lysenkoism.

Are We Just One Big Storm Away From Climate Lockdowns?

I basically agree with I&I--and it's a general view I now accept: things that would have been crazy conspiracy theories ten years ago can't be blithely dismissed today. Of course the theory that they are looking for an excuse to push for climate lockdowns seems crazy. But we know they're being discussed on the left, we know they trumpeted the climate benefits of the COVID lockdown, and we know they believe--or say they believe--that we're at or near a tipping point, a point of no return. Of course the left believes such insane things that we always face the question: Do they really believe it or are do they merely say it for PC cred? But I tend to think in most cases that there's no single right answer to that question, even for many individuals. Like many religious professions of faith, the beliefs are to some extent honest and to some extent expression of tribal allegiance (aka virtue signaling). Presumably a real push for climate lockdowns would flush out some mere virtue-signalers: when real practical consequences loom, when it's no longer about mere words, the left will lose some of its yes-men. But in my experience, progressives are so deeply immersed in the echo chamber that there seems no real hope of them ever busting out. 

   That's the most destructive lockdown--the partially-voluntary epistemic lockdown for which the PC left is renowned.

   We also can't trust the motives of the Democrats anymore when it comes to future possible COVID--or whatever--lockdowns...because we know they have--or say they have--other motives for wanting them.

   But at any rate: what should be treated as laughable paranoia can't be so treated anymore.

   I don't think it's going to happen.

   But I wouldn't bet very much money against it.

   

   Thing is, when half the voters either accept--or are committed to following those who accept--a wildly distorted worldview that's wildly and demonstrably wrong about a large number of issues, you can no longer rule out some crazy things that would have been unthinkable before that worldview was accepted.