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Any ex-climate deniers/skeptics here?
We've all seen it all over the news in recent years (decades, for those of who've been around long enough) ... people who are originally pretty sure they're right about something, tend to "double-down" on their convictions in the face of convincing evidence to the contrary ... and then double-down again.
Admitting you're wrong about something important, when you were pretty sure you were right, is just effin' hard.
Anybody here used to think climate change was a crock? What changed your mind?
I used to think this, though not terribly strongly. It was a result of my parroting my parents, mostly. They're staunch Republicans through-and-through, and though one of them is relatively open-minded, the other is practically dogmatic in their support of anything Republican.
Needless to say, this meant they thought (and still do) climate change was a hoax. Things like "Al Gore lied to line his pockets" was a common sentiment. I wasn't old enough yet to really develop a separate viewpoint, so I went along.
What changed my mind ended up being a gradual process occurring as a result of my frequent internet usage. I started seeing a lot of views countering those my parents held, and so mine started to shift. My parents and the conservative hosts they listened to never ended up providing much substance with their arguments; usually it was just things like "Scientists say global warming is a lie, but THE LEFT [devil sounds] is ignoring them!" or similar, so it didn't take much to refute them.
In the end, as much as I'd like to say it was my doing a lot of research on the subject that finally convinced me, it was really just that the constant drip-feed of news supporting the concept eventually took root. I've still yet to hear a convincing argument to the contrary, and so – while I should still probably try to inform myself of the details when I get the chance – my view has held up.