Evil works behind the scenes

In the previous post, which was about a classic piece of denialist propaganda, sent to the JEP by Gerard Baudains, Gerard’s letter insinuated that J-CAN (Jersey Climate Action Network) are dupes for

GB: “push(ing) a theory scientifically proven to be untrue” … and “surely they must fall into the category I call 'useful idiots'—ie, used by others to promote an agenda without realising they are being used.”

This was a bit Alice through the looking glass as the actual dupes being misled by powerful, deceptive forces are Mr Baudains and the rest of the legions of climate science denialists. Unfortunately they are über-confident that the whole thing is just a gigantic hoax invented so that scientists can get more research money, or it’s a Trojan horse to bring in a world government or, at the very least,  a means of scaring people so that taxes can be raised.

The certainty of denialist dupes is often unshakeable – their arguments can be, and frequently have been, shot to pieces until there is virtually nothing left and yet they carry on regardless as if nothing had happened. Seemingly unscathed in their own minds, like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Tis but a scratch

 

Frequently they will use the same destroyed arguments again at a later date proving one of several things: 1) they are incorrigible 2)  they do not understand that when their argument was destroyed, it STAYS destroyed or 3) (and this does not apply to the sincere but gullible majority) they know they are spreading untrue propaganda and don’t care because all they want to achieve is the swaying of voters’ minds to promote their own special self interests, whether those are financial, political or ideological.

The following couple of videos show the more sinister aspect of the corporate propaganda being created which masquerades as being the natural views of “grassroots” citizens groups. The videos contain extracts from, and commentary on, a documentary called Astroturf wars – how corporate America is faking a grassroots revolution. The first one shows someone from Americans for Prosperity (click link for their website). Click here for the Wiki article on AFP. The “teacher” is basically showing Tea Party activists how to spread propaganda. AFP was founded/funded by the infamous Koch brothers.

Training Tea Party Activists In Guerilla Internet Tactics - BUSTED!

In the past, when I have touched on these subjects, I have attracted denialist trolls - some articulate and literate, others much less so – who have demanded that I back myself up with documentary proof of well established facts. This is one of the main tactics of denialists, and modern propagandists generally – to spread doubt and uncertainty in the minds of those reading the exchanges. It all wastes a colossal amount of time because it is rather like being told to produce proof if one had made a claim such as “don’t run around on the crumbly cliff edge or you might fall over and die” – a statement which is so blindingly obvious that video proof, or accident statistics, are not necessary to shine a light on the basic truth.

Try mentioning that the Koch brothers fund denialist/sceptic organisations and fundamentalist wing nut think tanks and you will get some troll turn up demanding proof. Here is some proof. Koch himself confirming, in his own words, what he has been accused of doing, and his company has denied he ever did. To be fair, they worded their denial in very slippery deceptive language so that they conveyed a certain meaning to the reader (to fool them) while actually stating something else.

Tea Party Astroturf Funders Caught On Tape