Friday, May 25, 2007

Two pet peeves about right-wing argument

...which are essentially the same pet peeve, in, y'know, different contexts.

1) Smoking doesn't cause cancer, because I smoke and I don't have cancer!

You've got an argument? Fine. Bring it on. This isn't an argument, it's a fucking rationalization. You've smoked a pack a day since you were thirteen, and you're in perfect health? That doesn't mean that there's no link, it means that you were fucking *lucky*. It's like saying "I got shot and didn't die, therefore bullets don't kill people." What the hell kind of science is that? You can't map a trend from a sample of *one*.

2) Global warming is a hoax, because it's a cold day outside!

...and let's also add the left-wing "How can people say global warming is a hoax? It's such a hot day outside!" Yes, I've heard both.

Now, look. I'm a global warming skeptic. There's an argument to be had here. This is not it. Climatology means mapping trends over periods of thousands of years; you've gone ahead and made an assertion based on a study of *twenty seconds*. In one location. All argument like this does is serve to make the rest of us look stupid.

(Insert snarky "You don't need any help for that! Ha-ha!" here.)

1 comment:

steph said...

I agree with you. We have been fed this global warming BS ever since someone noticed a correlation between greenhouse gasses and rising temperatures. But truthfully, in the last 100 years temps have gone up 3/4°C, atmospheric carbon dioxide has increase by 80ppm (conributing to about 21.6% of its current value), and sea levels have risen about 10-20cm.

With such a large increase of CO2 in the atmosphere and such little changes in temps and water levels, I don't think human's CO2 contribution is making all that much of an impact on this global warming phenomenon!

As far as global warming is conserned, correlation is not causation! Though it most likely is in terms of smoking and lung cancer. ;-D