Stupid or Evil?

This has nothing to do with fundraising, so reader beware.

One of the great philosophical questions that causes me wonderment is how the supposedly smart conservatives (and yes they do exist) deal with climate change. You have to be an idiot – or a politician – not to believe that the climate crisis is upon us. For the right-wing masses, anti-intellectualism is a badge of honor, so no big surprise that Bubba Tea Party sleeps peacefully secure in the conviction that climate change is a communist/Islamic/atheist/homosexual conspiracy.

But what about the educated men and women of the right? Why do they parrot the party line? Are they just not as smart as they seem to be, or are they so cynical that they just don’t give a rat’s tuchus about the consequences of participating in the charade?

And which interpretation is more depressing?

Turns out I am not alone in these ponderings. I was excited to see Grist’s Ben Adler take on just this question in a wonderful analysis of how conservative pundits deal with the undeniable fact that it’s getting hotter out there. He takes one for the team by delving into the writings and rantings of the conservative elite and finds they fall into three broad categories:

There are: (1) the outright liars (see e.g. George Will); (2) the “it’s too late to prevent so let’s adapt” school, and (3) a tiny, miserable downtrodden few who are pushing for a carbon tax (but save face by blaming the democrats for the policy deadlock).

A depressing but entertaining and probably important anthropological tour of the crazy.