On climate change denialists

David Edmunds writes: Re. “Rundle: Howard and Abbott are delusional, self-indulgent, climate-denying throwbacks“

If Guy Rundle was to look up AFL wooden spoon tables he would find that St Kilda had by far the worst record of any AFL team.  He could attempt to explain this to a supporter of the team, replete with plenty of statistical examples showing that St Kilda are a bunch of losers, but would probably not have much success.  That is, the allegiance of a St Kilda supporter is not dependent on some proof that the team is superior, but on something much more basic.  The supporter might even claim that statistics are irrelevant, and St Kilda just is the best.  This is cognitive dissonance.

Given Tony Abbott’s 17 different policy views on climate change it is fair to assume a good deal of opportunism, that he is as Guy suggests, just a “fucking liar”.

However, this does not apply to many of those who oppose the findings of climate science.  They are part of a team, with a set of beliefs about their team and science has nothing to do with it.  Their team has developed a particular culture associated with some beliefs about private enterprise, hatred of progressive ideology, the black armband view of history, and admiration for their leaders, Mr Abbott, Mr Bolt, Mr Monckton and Mr Lawson.  They don’t care if their leaders have feet of clay but are very engaged with the failures of those on other teams.  They read the Australian and Quadrant. Their leaders speak the language of their team, fly the right flag, fight the right people, and ignore information that is not relevant to their belief system.  This is just human nature.  Perhaps they barrack for St Kilda.

Over time we can expect the support for this particular reactionary team to fade, but it is a strong team.  They will do untold damage.  Look at the bill the US will face this year from climate change enhanced events. However, the world will inexorably move forward as people in various climate change impacted industries make decisions based on actual evidence, as they are now doing.

On cybersecurity chaos

Desmond Graham writes: Re. “Hack of defence firm reveals a cybersecurity framework in chaos“

And Canberra wants to keep all the medical records in Australia in a computer in Canberra and bribe doctors with practice grants to join up – with a twist that patients cannot access their own notes. So when did you last have tonsillitis or gonorrhea? I will just look at what the hackers have…