This is a presentation by the scientist Geoffrey Supran, who in his own words specializes in studying "climate disinformation and propaganda by fossil fuel interests". It was presented to European...
This is a presentation by the scientist Geoffrey Supran, who in his own words specializes in studying "climate disinformation and propaganda by fossil fuel interests". It was presented to European Parliament at March 2019. Here is Supran's tweet talking about it, and you will see that the date on the document also says Hearing 21 March 2019.
For a summary, you can watch the 1.5 minutes video on the Tweet I shared. His presentation mainly focuses on his and Naomi Oreskes's findings about ExxonMobil's decades-long disinformation campaign regarding climate change, despite the internal documents clearly showing they actually recognized climate change. The presentation is a good summary and visualization of their findings, which are some of the best research regarding climate disinformation. I think it's a must-read for anyone.
As a cherry on top, in the Tweet we learn that ExxonMobil sent a private memo to smear Geoffrey Supran before the presentation. So, they are still continuing their propaganda campaign, and trying to suppress people who are exposing them.
In a way this is a very comforting read. There was a concentrated, concerted, decades long campaign which started well before I was born to discredit science and promote doubt in our experts and...
In a way this is a very comforting read.
There was a concentrated, concerted, decades long campaign which started well before I was born to discredit science and promote doubt in our experts and scientific process
The leader of the free world with immense soft power stood to gain the most from these decades of greed : even if one isn't from the US, the effect happened to all of us
The result: idiotic pseudoscience, crack medicine, faith healers, "uncertainty", "theory not fact"....all of these whether for climate change or medicine or evolution or abortion or trans rights, partisanship, political extremism, or anything we could think of at all that's wrong with us, probably all stemmed from this style attack on us all using journalism, money in politics and bad science reporting.
Multiply it with plastics industry, with the "wellness" industry, with the consolidation of power etc....
It's hopeful because it wasn't our fellow humans who are this stupid and this apathetic and this evil: they were intentionally misled. At worst, we'll recover in a few hundred years, in pockets of the world that still have survivable climate.
You must be an incredible optimist because I see this as an indictment on humanity in that (a) there are people that are willing to go to such lengths to deceive the public just to further their...
You must be an incredible optimist because I see this as an indictment on humanity in that (a) there are people that are willing to go to such lengths to deceive the public just to further their personal selfish goals, and (b) that the public can be so easily mislead and persuaded to take on such extreme views (anti-science).
I take absolutely no relief from learning about this deception and won't until there is some justice for the perpetrators and the public at large becomes aware of the lengths taken to mislead them.
It's optimistic because it shows that this was a systemic failure. That means we can (in theory at least) fix or replace the system that made it happen. The pessimist view is that this is just...
It's optimistic because it shows that this was a systemic failure. That means we can (in theory at least) fix or replace the system that made it happen. The pessimist view is that this is just 'the tragedy of the commons', it's inherent to human nature and we're doomed to repeat it forever until we destroy ourselves.
"To those that can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed" Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator I like that perspective of yours.
"To those that can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed"
Exactly!! Thank you for putting it so succinctly. Yes exactly! And I mean, even with so much sabotage and so much evil trying to keep us dumb, we still managed to have made scientific gains,...
Exactly!! Thank you for putting it so succinctly. Yes exactly!
And I mean, even with so much sabotage and so much evil trying to keep us dumb, we still managed to have made scientific gains, managed to keep most of us sane and caring for the planet, and the young, oh man the young, they care so much and will carry us so far.... It's incredibly hopeful that this was everything they had to throw at us and yet it didn't work entirely.
Also, That's a pretty cool dragon wizard picture, is it from a novel?
I mean, there is no direct access to "human nature" in systemic issues, because every action passes through systems to manifest. You can think of systems as the interface via which we interact...
I mean, there is no direct access to "human nature" in systemic issues, because every action passes through systems to manifest. You can think of systems as the interface via which we interact with each other and the world. Dominant ideologies like to cite human nature to justify themselves, but it's always bullshit. Nobody can point to a "pure human nature", something that is ideologically shared by all humans everywhere all the time, because it does not exist. Even the same fear or wants often manifest in different ways.
If we look at history we can see that humans have always been rat bastards when given the chance. We've also always been kinda great. People are greedy, selfish idiots, people are generous, noble...
If we look at history we can see that humans have always been rat bastards when given the chance.
We've also always been kinda great.
People are greedy, selfish idiots, people are generous, noble and brilliant too.
The comfort is in accepting the paradox that is homo sapiens so that you're not expecting more from the human race than it has thus far been able to deliver.
This is a presentation by the scientist Geoffrey Supran, who in his own words specializes in studying "climate disinformation and propaganda by fossil fuel interests". It was presented to European Parliament at March 2019. Here is Supran's tweet talking about it, and you will see that the date on the document also says Hearing 21 March 2019.
For a summary, you can watch the 1.5 minutes video on the Tweet I shared. His presentation mainly focuses on his and Naomi Oreskes's findings about ExxonMobil's decades-long disinformation campaign regarding climate change, despite the internal documents clearly showing they actually recognized climate change. The presentation is a good summary and visualization of their findings, which are some of the best research regarding climate disinformation. I think it's a must-read for anyone.
As a cherry on top, in the Tweet we learn that ExxonMobil sent a private memo to smear Geoffrey Supran before the presentation. So, they are still continuing their propaganda campaign, and trying to suppress people who are exposing them.
In a way this is a very comforting read.
There was a concentrated, concerted, decades long campaign which started well before I was born to discredit science and promote doubt in our experts and scientific process
The leader of the free world with immense soft power stood to gain the most from these decades of greed : even if one isn't from the US, the effect happened to all of us
The result: idiotic pseudoscience, crack medicine, faith healers, "uncertainty", "theory not fact"....all of these whether for climate change or medicine or evolution or abortion or trans rights, partisanship, political extremism, or anything we could think of at all that's wrong with us, probably all stemmed from this style attack on us all using journalism, money in politics and bad science reporting.
Multiply it with plastics industry, with the "wellness" industry, with the consolidation of power etc....
It's hopeful because it wasn't our fellow humans who are this stupid and this apathetic and this evil: they were intentionally misled. At worst, we'll recover in a few hundred years, in pockets of the world that still have survivable climate.
You must be an incredible optimist because I see this as an indictment on humanity in that (a) there are people that are willing to go to such lengths to deceive the public just to further their personal selfish goals, and (b) that the public can be so easily mislead and persuaded to take on such extreme views (anti-science).
I take absolutely no relief from learning about this deception and won't until there is some justice for the perpetrators and the public at large becomes aware of the lengths taken to mislead them.
It's optimistic because it shows that this was a systemic failure. That means we can (in theory at least) fix or replace the system that made it happen. The pessimist view is that this is just 'the tragedy of the commons', it's inherent to human nature and we're doomed to repeat it forever until we destroy ourselves.
Nay! It is this way by the hands of others, and by our hand it may be different
"To those that can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed"
Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator
I like that perspective of yours.
Exactly!! Thank you for putting it so succinctly. Yes exactly!
And I mean, even with so much sabotage and so much evil trying to keep us dumb, we still managed to have made scientific gains, managed to keep most of us sane and caring for the planet, and the young, oh man the young, they care so much and will carry us so far.... It's incredibly hopeful that this was everything they had to throw at us and yet it didn't work entirely.
Also, That's a pretty cool dragon wizard picture, is it from a novel?
I mean, there is no direct access to "human nature" in systemic issues, because every action passes through systems to manifest. You can think of systems as the interface via which we interact with each other and the world. Dominant ideologies like to cite human nature to justify themselves, but it's always bullshit. Nobody can point to a "pure human nature", something that is ideologically shared by all humans everywhere all the time, because it does not exist. Even the same fear or wants often manifest in different ways.
If we look at history we can see that humans have always been rat bastards when given the chance.
We've also always been kinda great.
People are greedy, selfish idiots, people are generous, noble and brilliant too.
The comfort is in accepting the paradox that is homo sapiens so that you're not expecting more from the human race than it has thus far been able to deliver.
Also, broken systems.