{"id":3047,"date":"2014-04-02T11:03:51","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T15:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3047"},"modified":"2014-04-03T07:03:06","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T11:03:06","slug":"squelching-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3047","title":{"rendered":"squelching opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How-to-reduce-outside-sounds-at-home\"<\/a>Together we are a collective bunch of \u00a0\u201cpro\u2019s\u201d and \u201canti\u2019s.\u201d \u00a0Some of us are pro-abortion; some of us are anti-abortion. Some of us are pro-gay marriage; some of us are anti-gay marriage.\u00a0 Some of us are pro-yada-yada-yada; still others are anti-yada-yada-yada.\u00a0 The bottom line is that there are good people who disagree on challenging issues.<\/p>\n

The Intramuralist is comfortable with our differing.\u00a0 It\u2019s not my job nor your job nor anyone\u2019s<\/i> job \u2014 nor even anyone\u2019s capability \u2014\u00a0 <\/i>to be the convictor of truth.\u00a0 No one, my friends, is capable of usurping such a sacred role.\u00a0 What disturbs me, however, is when one works not to \u201cwin the argument,\u201d so-to-speak, on the merits of the opinion itself, but instead works tirelessly to squelch opposing opinion.\u00a0 Allow me to borrow from Tuesday\u2019s editorial in USA Today,<\/i> written by Jonah Goldberg, member of USA Today’s<\/i> Board of Contributors.\u00a0 Let\u2019s discuss the yada yada yada… [Note that the emphasis will be mine.]<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201c… A writer for the website Gawker recently penned a self-described ‘rant’ on the pressing need to <\/i>arrest, charge and imprison<\/i><\/b> people who \u2018deny\u2019 global warming. In fairness, Adam Weinstein doesn’t want mass arrests (besides, in a country where only 44% of Americans say there is \u2018solid evidence\u2019 of global warming and it’s mostly due to human activity, you can’t round up every dissenter)… Weinstein suggests the government simply try the troublemakers and spokespeople… ‘<\/i>Those malcontents must be punished and stopped.’<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Weinstein says that this \u2018is an argument that’s just being discussed seriously in some circles.\u2019 He credits Rochester Institute of Technology philosophy professor Lawrence Torcello for getting the ball rolling. Last month, Torcello argued that America should follow Italy’s lead. In 2009, six seismologists were convicted of poorly communicating the risks of a major earthquake. When one struck, the scientists were sentenced to six years in jail for downplaying the risks. Torcello and Weinstein want a similar approach for climate change…<\/i><\/p>\n

The truth is this isn’t as new an outlook as Weinstein suggests. For instance, in 2009, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman insisted that \u2018deniers\u2019 in Congress who opposed the Waxman-Markey climate change bill were committing <\/i>\u2018treason\u2019 <\/i><\/b>while explaining their opposition on the House floor.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected,\u2019 Krugman insisted. How fast the earth is changing is open to all kinds of debate, but short of an asteroid strike it won’t change as fast as the global warming pessimists have claimed. For example, in 2008, Al Gore predicted that the North Pole Ice Cap would be ice free by 2013. Arctic ice, which never came close to disappearing, has actually been making a bit of comeback lately.<\/i><\/p>\n

Gore’s prediction \u2014 echoed by then Sen. John Kerry and countless others \u2014 was always ridiculous hyperbole. But even most serious, non-hyperbolic, computer-modeled predictions have overestimated the amount of warming we’ve experienced. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has had to retract several histrionic predictions, such as its erroneous prophecy that the Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2035.<\/i><\/p>\n

Its new report, out on Monday, contains a new raft of dire prophecies requiring trillions in new spending. If I greet it with skepticism, shall I pack a tooth brush for my trip to jail?<\/i><\/p>\n

Climate change activists insist that in science, revisions are routine, and that such corrections prove the good faith of scientists. Even if that’s true, one might still note that incentives are unhealthily arranged so that even well-intentioned researchers are encouraged to exaggerate the dangers of climate change and discouraged to criticize hyperbole. Moreover, were it not for the skeptics and deniers, many such corrections would never have been brought to light…<\/i><\/p>\n

The real problem is that political activists and many leading institutions, particularly in the news media and academia, are determined to demonize any kind of skepticism \u2014 about the extent of the threat or the efficacy of proposed solutions \u2014 as illegitimate idiocy…”<\/i><\/p>\n

The point is not the proposed validity of global warming.\u00a0 The point is that it\u2019s foolish to squelch opinion \u2014 <\/i>whatever the yada yada yada.<\/p>\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Together we are a collective bunch of \u00a0\u201cpro\u2019s\u201d and \u201canti\u2019s.\u201d \u00a0Some of us are pro-abortion; some of us are anti-abortion. Some of us are pro-gay marriage; some of us are anti-gay marriage.\u00a0 Some of us are pro-yada-yada-yada; still others are anti-yada-yada-yada.\u00a0 The bottom line is that there are good people who disagree on challenging issues. … <\/p>\n

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