A Rare Moment of Unadultered Hatred: Shut the hell up.

I get frustrated just like any other person. Anyone who knows me in person can vouch that this is indeed the case. I try to keep it in check, but right now, I have but a few words to say to a great many persons:

Shut the hell up. If you can't think of anything intelligent to say, or at least something that doesn't jepordize the future of everything you might reasonably care about, then just go into your little corner of reality and don't say anything at all. You are now, and always will be, a nuisence, a distraction and a danger. While in general, I don't advocate "censorship," I must at this point admit that I need some isolation from the overwhelming idiocy that pervades what passes for political discussion in this country, and the only way to do that is for the debate to become intelligent, or for me to leave my political awareness behind. Of the two, I prefer that the dangerous idiots leave.

Having said this, I suppose I probably should make clear who I am aiming at, since we as a society have been damn near brainwashed into thinking that we actually have meaningful discourse on political, social, moral and scientific issues. I am refering to the overwhelming and completely unfounded attack on science that seems to have manifested itself this week in the form of "articles" denying the existance of global warming. By the way, don't even dare accuse me of failing to make an argument. I shouldn't have to. Many others have done so, and I don't intend to waste any effort in convincing people so utterly disconnected from reality. At this point, I wish only to encourage anti-global-warming dittoheads to simply lay off the issue until they learn what it means to have a brain and apply this learning in practice.

Let me describe some examples of the sort of thing that prompts this Unadultered Hatred. Attempting to read the opening comments of this recent Slashdot article on a related issue simply sickens me to the point of physical nausea. Reading pseudo-arguments like the following examples make me despair for humanity.

We already have droughts, floods, powerful storms, varying jet streams, famines, and lots of other weather. Why should we expect next century's droughts to be drier than last century's? When was the time when the weather was perfect for everyone? What makes you think that you can have the weather you want?

-- Kohath, comment #15145483.

Marked as 3, Insightful. I guess noting that storms exist without making any sort of actual argument passes as Insightful these days.

Face it. Most people in the US are bored. They on average spend 4 hours a day in front of the tv, 8 hours working, 8 hours sleeping, and 4 hours unexplained.

From what I hear, New Orleans is a blessing since the hurricane. Crime is almost non-existant, and people are focused on rebuilding the city, working, and being nice to each other.

Maybe a shifting environment and real estate changes will be good for us.

-- hackstraw, comment #15145816.

Marked as 4, Interesting. I suppose that I can't deny that it's interesting. Then again, isn't Hitler interesting, too, or did I just lose the debate via Godwin's Law?

Does it bother you that hurricane researchers have said repeatedly that global warming had little or nothing to do with it, and that there was an expected upswell of activity due starting last year, give or take? Or that the US coastline had been dodging the averages for the better part of 20 years, with a far smaller fraction of hurricane strikes than the historic record would otherwise suggest? What will you be saying if the next hurricane season shows lower activity than the last?

-- Martin Blank, comment #15145268.

Marked as 5, Informative. So that means if I make a bunch of baseless and uncited claims that have nothing to do with the argument at hand, it's not only perfectly on topic, but an informative contribution to an intelligent debate?

Let's make a deal:

Global warming caused last year's record number of hurricanes. So this year, when the number of hurricanes is fewer, we'll know it's because global warming has peaked and is no longer a problem. Do we have a deal?

-- Kohath (again), comment #15145883.

Marked as 4, Insightful. I give up on Slashdot moderation for now. I suppose I have to find a new target, like maybe... Digg? At least on Slashdot, the article itself is fine. The comments are what are so scary. Even then, there are some good commenters mixed in, but they spend all their time responding to idiocy like what I just referenced. On Digg, however... well, let's look at the very headlines of some recent front page articles:

"Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence."

"Global Warming Reportedly Stopped in 1998."

"Remember Global Cooling?"

Sick. To be fair, some of these have been marked as inaccurate, but again, they never should have made it to the front page. There is no substance to such articles; no arguments, no compelling presentation of new perspectives, no attempt at intelligent thought. To repeat myself, then, please, for the love of whatever you hold dear, shut any orfice from which words may emit, cease to utilize any appendage capable of recording written words, and go take a middle-school science class.

technorati tags: hate, rant, vent, science, idiots, digg, slashdot