The very independent right wing Montana blogs are all aflutter today about Joe Balyeat’s latest foray into a subject he knows little about. This time it’s two subjects: global warming and compromise.
Balyeat, writing in the Montana Standard, wants us to believe that he believes deeply in compromise on the subject of energy independence and global warming. The problem, according to Balyeat, is not over-reliance on fossil fuels or our unwillingness to control our consumption of energy, but a lack of politeness on behalf of those who want to work on reduction of fossil fuel usage.
Despite his claim of searching for common ground, Balyeat is hardly fair when describing defenders of the scientific consensus about global warming. In the course of his 600 words, he seems to be calling for more polite dialogue from people he describes as “condescending” advocates of “intrusive government,” drinkers of ‘global warming Koolaid” and “secular doomsayers” who rely “demeaning insults” and “scare stories” to make their arguments.
It’s certainly hard to understand why Senator Balyeat is having such a hard time working with these people.
It’s a classic display of the kind of logic that dominates right wing thinking on science, whether it’s global warming or evolution. Because they cannot imagine that human fossil fuel use is accelerating warming to dangerous levels or that life on Earth evolved over billions of years, it can’t be true.
It’s not compromise if one side refuses to acknowledge scientific evidence. It’s absurd. If consensus will move the Montana and federal governments forward on global warming, I’m all for it, but to believe that consensus is coming from an unscientific, insulting position like this, Montanans concerned about the environment would really need to be as stupid as Joe Balyeat thinks we are.
Footnote: At the end of his piece, Balyeat claims to be a three time National Merit Scholar. Given that high school students can only be selected as National Merit Scholars once, I think Mr. Balyeat might just be making something else up as well.
Article by Don Pogreba
Don is an English/Debate teacher and debate handbook author who lives in Helena, MT, and who can't imagine living anywhere other than this glorious state. Much of his writing happens late at night and he is unlikely to respond to your comments during the day.
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“Footnote: At the end of his piece, Balyeat claims to be a three time National Merit Scholar.”
This provided me with quite the chuckle.
“All aflutter?”
I wrote “Well put.”
In fact, Bayleat is book smart – he scored very highly on the CPA exam and won awards for that too.
Bayleat reminds me of something I see in many conservatives, like Dave Rye – they have extreme clarity of vision. They see things very clearly, and are erudite in expression of their views.
But they are tunnel-visioned. They see what they see very clearly. They just don’t see very much.
Something else, a little hard to put a finger on … Bayleat is like a trained dog who is very well trained indeed – he performs marvelously. But he’s not thinking his own thoughts. He parrots right wing doctrine. Many kids who score high in the high school grading system are like this – they are pleasing the adults around them. They’re not thinking for themselves. So I doubt very much that Bayleat has ever questioned the right wing belief system with much rigor. He knows what he knows quite well, is self-assured, comfortable in his beliefs, and does not venture out much. He never experiences doubt.
The prize may have been different when he was young.
Regardless though I used to be ambivalent to global warming but hardened into an ardent skeptic partially for the fact that the warming crowd called anyone who demanded falsifiability per the scientific method Holocaust deniers.
This was particularly offensive because I am Jewish, but now I really don’t care and just consider myself a denier.
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