On Wingnut Welfare and Climate Change

I was reading the latest tin foil hat post at Powerline Blog which again alleges that a conspiracy of scientists are pushing anthropogenic global warming to cash in on speaking fees and research grants and trips to cool places to talk about their research. It is all a conspiracy. It is over cash - plain and simple. Only the Wingnuts have it figured out. And suddenly realized what may be going on with the denial crowd.

I will call this Theory of Global Warming Denial projection. Let me explain.

Many wingers are hooked on Wingnut Welfare. And in order to keep receiving your wingnut welfare cash, you have to stay on message and loyal to the team. If you do so, you get to keep playing and collecting cash from wealth right wing patrons. If you go off message, you get rebuked or cut off or even worse - banished. Hence there is a powerful incentive to play by all the rules - even if that having means writing crazy shit about Bush being a Genius or Iran posing an existential threat to Western Civilization. You just have to do it to keep on the team. Along the way many end up buying into the Bullshit and become trapped in right wing counter culture. It is a terribly sad dilemma, but what can you do? There was no funding for FEMA run anti-Obama dissident camps in the Stimulus Bill. And if anyone says the Stimulus bill was a failure, perhaps this lack of funding is one point that can be used to backs up that contention.

Let's look at an example of Wingnut Welfare in Action. Take Michael Barone. He is a winger, a hardcore winger that lays down shrill tracks accusing the President of being a hyper-thug one day and a weakling apologizing to America's enemies on the next without missing a beat to note the inconsistencies. It is all just part of the game. And if you play the game well, you get rewarded with cash grants like the $250,000 Bradley Prize which goes annually to loyalists like Barone who have demonstrated their value through their good works. If one's loyalty is to facts instead of team there is no payout . Worse yet, disloyalty could earn banishment for what passes as good society in right wing circles.

Now back to Global Warming Denial. What if the wingers hyping the conspiracy talk on global warming are viewing Scientists in the same light as fellow Wingnut Welfare Recipients? "We got this Racket all Figured, Man. Because we play this game with the rubes everyday " a winger may think. "Just like us," the winger may continue "the Scientists have to tell their left wing benefactors what they want to hear or they'll lose out." This false equivalence between rightwing counter culture and science leaves the winger thinking he's the smartest guy in the room having figured out something that only the Eggheaded Scientists are in on. And Hence what follows is tinfoil hat posts alleging that man induced global warming is all a great big hoax cooked up by scientists in order to (1) cash in; and/or (2) impose a global regulatory scheme designed to destroy freedom.

Keep in mind this is just one theory of describing Global Warming Denial. There are others as well, such as the fact that many of these guys are just irredeemable assholes. So keep this in mind.