Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumThat Guy The Atlantic Hired Who Wants Death Penalty For Abortions? Also A Climate Liar (Bonus!)
EDIT
In response to the initial criticism, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg defended the hire in a staff memo (obtained by Slate). In it, he acknowledged that Williamsons tweets have been pretty bad. I dont think that taking a persons worst tweets, or assertions, in isolation is the best journalistic practice, he says, later adding that hed prefer to give people second chances and the opportunity to change.
So what does Williamson do with his second chance? He immediately goes back to trolling Democrats with a phony smear, claiming they are dreaming up excuses to sue or jail people for their views on climate change, and the United States is for the moment left with two authoritarian populist parties referring to both the Republicans and Democrats. Most of the piece focuses on arguing that the GOP is authoritarian for embracing Trump. The only example Williamson offers, however, for his false equivalency that the Democrats are also authoritarian is his false claim about the climate lawsuits.
EDIT
The other lawsuits getting a lot of attention right now are kids suing the Trump Administration, claiming the federal government is endangering the plaintiffs right to a livable climate. But Williamson and the Atlantic dont mention these actual lawsuits at all, perhaps because they arent about trying to sue or jail people for their views on climate change. Instead, they offer two hyperlinks, one for the word jail and one for the rest of the sentence as this screenshot of the HTML code shows.
?w=1072&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C298px&ssl=1
The hyperlink attached to jail goes to a 4-year-old piece by Gawker (which shut down 2 years ago). In it, a Gawker blogger does propose charging and punishing people who are paid to spread misinformation on climate change. He quotes an assistant philosophy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It isnt by a Democratic politician, and it doesnt cite any, so it does not provide any support for Williamsons charge.
EDIT
Nonetheless, on the very thin reed of these two links one irrelevant and one innocuous Williamson and the Atlantic smear Democrats with a false charge and paint the entire party as authoritarian. This is called trolling. Its what Williamson has done for a very long time. He is way past second or third or tenth chances.
EDIT/END
https://thinkprogress.org/atlantic-right-wing-columnist-promotes-climate-misinformation-481b1ec1757e/
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Remember, only 4% of hard scientists are Republicans because smart people who are trained to form their own opinions realize the GOP is a party full of lies and propaganda.
So the remaining GOP intellectuals end up being mostly feeble minded compared to left wing intellectuals like Krugman or Foer or Beutler or Goldberg, to name just a few.
The GOP intellectuals end up with half assed whataboutism, or pushing the right wing talking point of the week, not adding any new insight. Look at the WSJ Ed page. Look at Megan McArdle. Ben Shapiro. Peggy Noonan. These people are more wrong than cult members are. And when they actually drop the talking points to make new arguments, their arguments are dumb. The GOP is the party of stupid people.