Comment Central has a useful piece on Net Zero and the tendency of the Westminster bubble to sneer at anyone opposing any of their narratives however absurd they may be.
Sneering at those who doubt net zero will end up with the same result as Brexit
The 'Westminster Bubble' continues to push on with a net zero agenda whilst showing nothing but disdain for those who question the narrative. The more aggression which is shown to anyone with a different opinion to theirs, the more resentment will grow. This issue was not a headline of the manifesto at the 2019 General Election, and it is likely to pave the way for the kind of electoral shock Whitehall experienced in the 2016 EU Referendum, argues Jayne Adye, Director of Get Britain Out.
It is well worth reading the whole piece, including some of the comments. This comment for example.
We have to get a little more thick-skinned about being "sneered at" or being called names like "transphobic" or "terf" (in another context of course - it would be a little baffling, I'm sure in the context of climate change and energy!). They believe we care, or are cowed by their opinions. We aren't cowed at at all, and we couldn't give a flying flamingo, I hope, at being disapproved of, sneered at, or called names. And we need to dig our heels in and make our indifference clear.
Perhaps many of us are more thick-skinned than we were. We read, we understand and we generally know the difference between sensible, dodgy and downright ludicrous in spite of the sneering. If anything, the sneering gives them away.
5 comments:
Yes, a very fine piece, with some common sense forcefully expressed in the comments. Thanks!
I'm actually more optimistic about the Net Zero issue than Brexit, other things being equal. Brexit was (and remains, to some extent) largely hypothetical in terms of its outcome. Nobody really knew what would happen with any certainty, so it was decided on issues of principle and emotion. In the case of Net Zero, people will be able to experience for themselves the cold homes and the petty inconveniences as loony policies start to bite. In fact, they might not be able to bite at all, as the issue of uncosted policies will certainly be debated in Parliament. When the Government are proposing an end to ICE vehicles thay are either talking about an economic and scientific impossibility (charging all those cars overnight for the morning rush hour) or science fiction. That is I think inescapable.
It's astonishing that no leading scientists have told them, privately and publicly, what bollocks it all is. Too scared of losing their research grants I suppose. Just another proof that The State is far too big, dominating, expensive.
For this past week the combined output of those billions of pounds worth of wind turbines and their huge network of connecting cables have hardly risen above 1.5 GW compared with a rated 15 GW.
Meanwhile the forests of USA are burning nicely in Drax and accumulating subsidy.
Thanks to GB National Grid Watch.
I think that one difference over the last few years is that the haughty disdain of the Powers That Be for those who wrongthink has lost its effectiveness. So 'sneering' has been adopted as a way of keeping the minions in their place - competitive sneering at that.
However the sneering doesn't work as it generates no respect. As a consequence there have been a fair few pearls clutched about 'populism' even though (BREXIT for instance) involved democratic processes.
So Climate Change, Net Zero, COVID controls could easily have been introduced in sensible ways and debated properly. Instead the prodnoses have generated much pushback by their sneering, undoing all the potentially sensible responses to events. And yes, some of that pushback has been excessive too, but what forum exists for sensible debate, sensible science?
Sam - I'm more optimistic about the Net Zero issue too. It's a brick wall and I'll be interested to see when Boris spots it and what he does about it. She should spot it in spite of Nut Nut.
dearieme - that's the problem, it's far too big and dominating. Most of its scientists probably think they have nowhere else to go - that was certainly my impression before retirement.
Doonhamer - yes, lots of almost windless days. Strange how the BBC doesn't seem to notice this aspect of fine weather.
DJ - yes, sneering does fail to generate respect. It's a last resort before outright censorship or something more constructive. We must hope for the latter.
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