William Briggs has an entertaining piece on young people being used to promote climate change politics even though they clearly know virtually nothing about it.
Why The Continuing Appeal Of The Appeal To Non-Authority Fallacy?
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you proof that “climate change” has completed its transformation from Science into yet another foolish global panic grift, a grift embodied in this young lady, twenty year old Sophia Kianni.
This is the first tweet in a thread in which that young lady describes her duties.
One is to “Attend meetings with UN officers and country ambassadors to exchange ideas on how the United Nations can drive climate ambition and action to steer the planet to a path of sustainability by keeping global warming under 1.5C”.
I want to be both hyper-precise and perfectly accurate here. Sophia, like Great Thunberg before her, is ignorant on these matters. She knows almost nothing about them. The bulk of what little she does know is hyperbolic propaganda.
There is nothing this woman has to offer on this subject. Not one thing. Can she suggest better cloud parameterizations in GCMs? Does she know the amounts governments should force companies to pay in “carbon” taxes?
The whole thing is well worth reading because it raises questions as to why young people are used to promote things about which they know nothing. Briggs offers an analogy with advertising and maybe that's it, but to my mind there is something even less healthy lurking in there.
People trust non-authorities more than they trust politicians on the same subjects, because of the likability and the supposed disinterest of non-authorities. What do kids have to gain by mouthing a “carbon” tax? They must be sincere!
The Non-Authority is, after all, how much advertising works. A beautiful woman drinks a beer, a swarthy man drives a truck, a film actor endorses a pop or reverse mortgage. We buy because we like and trust these non-authorities. This fallacy is used at all levels of culture.
Funny thing is, nobody ever confesses to be taken in by it.
6 comments:
I'll confess!
I've been fooled by some advertising before, but mainly when much younger and more trusting. My house was (until I dumped a lot of crap) filled with things I bought and then discovered were not much good.
If it didn't work, at least on some people, no money would be wasted on adverts.
At the hospital this morning:
Young doctor: Do you mind if I take off my mask so you can hear me better?
Me: Please do, they are only a superstition.
Him: I can't comment on that.
All the staff were wearing masks but a noticeable minority of them had their noses sticking out.
More than half the patients were wearing masks. It ain't just the young who get fooled by charlatans.
Nice article - Briggs might get me buying his book as a result!
I think there's another factor involved in young people being recruited to parrot political ideology. Most people are swayed in their opinions by emotion rather than reason. They don't have the time or the training to examine evidence and work things out for themselves. This isn't even a new development - countries are best unified when they stand against a scary threat, and the Nazis knew the value of rallies and ranting from the podium.
Emotion in older people doesn't work so well, though. The older we get, the more we come across like impotent old wrecks. Adolescents do emotion much better. Full of energy and emotionally labile, quivering on the edge of tears, or raging. We are probably bio-programmed to respond to it because it is dangerously destructive of family life, and that's why young people are shoved in front of cameras.
It's also, I think, why Jordan Peterson became so popular. He was a steady dad-figure who told the whining little bastards to tidy their rooms.
Ed - we've been fooled by advertising too. We still joke about a table-top mincer which was supposedly secured to the table by a big rubber suction cup. It had a Design Council sticker but was completely useless. Never again did we buy anything endorsed by the Design Council.
dearieme - yes, young people are used for promotion, but older people can be as gullible. Hospitals seem to be quite incapable of implementing rational policies on high profile issues such as masks.
Sam - and the emotionally labile problem with young people seems to be reflected in young MPs apart from the lack of experience. They seem to be unduly attuned to emotional signals which they should view with a much more sceptical eye.
Stealing this for later. Liked Dearieme’s anecdote too. :)
James - Briggs is always worth checking - as is Dearieme :)
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