This is quite an interesting site, not just from the viewpoint of Climate Change, but just about every other issue where there are vested interests in maintaining the Status Quo. A skilled Denialist is always in demand. Apart from the tobacco industry, the gun lobby and the industrial lobby, you might be able to apply these principles to defend your own little pet interest.

So don't despair if your life has absolutely no principles. Here's a set of instant principles. Just add water. There is no guarantee that any of these will work, but if your tactics fail, just walk away for a while then try a different technique.  

I like to call it the professional approach to procrastination:

http://www.denialism.com/Deckofcards/deck.html


Quote:

If the public debate on an issue has proceeded this far, the denialist is in trouble.  It is time to become more aggressive by attempting to confuse everyone involved in the process. The "red herring" argument is a frequently-employed and efficacious tool to confuse everyone.  A red herring is a specious argument—one that sounds cogent, but isn't really responsive to the issue.

bump

It has been obvious for a long time that the denialist camp has been promoting a steady stream of misiformation, the aim of which was to promote confusion and cause the delay of any action, but to see their time proven tactics outlined does give pause to wonder, how some become so passionately wedded to their blatantly transparent propaganda.

I fear that the more alarmist proponents of Global Warming are greatly to blame for this polarisation, by causing some otherwise rational people, to latch onto these disingenuous denialist arguments, by way of counteracting the alarmists rhetoric, in the style of two wrongs make a right.

Unfortunately we see too many surrender their objective reason when they choose this path, and bloody minded opposition to all Global Warming arguments become their target rather than just the alarmist extremism which they were initially offended by.

I see all of those here. The trick seems to be to recycle them as quickly as possible. That way you never actually discuss anything. If asked a difficult question, you just ignore it and move onto the next one with a copy and paste.

http://www.ozpolitic.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/cat.jpg


:D :D :D

duck - pronounced  dʌ:g

Muso is dʌ:g.  :)

The denialist deck pretty much applies to any position if you change the wording.

Jim Profit wrote on Dec 17^th, 2008 at 2:26pm:

The denialist deck pretty much applies to any position if you change the wording.

Thats an interesting attitude. So the implication is that any greeny cause is beyond refute and has no other agendas.

PS Muso, what is the 'industrial lobby'? You seem to have you own denial regarding the fact that we live in an industrialised civilization that relies on cheap, reliable and abundant energy.  

Quote:

So the implication is that any greeny cause is beyond refute and has no other agendas.

No. The implication is that whatever the necessary change, if there is enough money behind the status quo then people will inevitable spread the same style of misinformation to maintain the status quo. That is, they don't attempt to actually win the argument, but merely to confuse and delay.

Grendel's approach here is a good example. He avoids taking on an actual position and trying to defend it. He avoid debating any particular point. Instead, he keeps posting whatever anti-AGW tripe he can find, regardless of it's merit.

If he was trying to actually convince skeptics of his position, it would never work. The tactic is only useful when the public debate has been lost and a delay in the inevitable change is the only achievable goal.

freediver wrote on Dec 17^th, 2008 at 5:26pm:

[quote]No. The implication is that whatever the necessary change, if there is enough money behind the status quo then people will inevitable spread the same style of misinformation to maintain the status quo. That is, they don't attempt to actually win the argument, but merely to confuse and delay.

That's... closer to what I meant... lol