One of the most pernicious aspects of the global warming conspiracy theorists who imply that millions of scientists, politicians, pundits, and activists are in collusion to perpetrate a global warming hoax is the way they call themselves “skeptics”. Even How To Talk To A Climate Skeptic uses this term, reinforcing the idea idea that global warming denialism has any relationship to skepticism. Why is this so damaging? Well, even though “skeptic” isn’t exactly the most popular thing in the world to be, it does imply rationality that denialists don’t actually have. We need to stop calling them “skeptics” and use the more accurate term “denialist”.
Let’s get into definitions. What is a denialist? Denialists are a very specific form of conspiracy theorist. Some conspiracy theories argue the Freemasons control the world, that Bush was behind 9/11, or that there was a plot to kill JFK. They create alternative readings of history that satisfy their allergy to the chaotic form real systems take. Denialists, however, are more interested in taking those things that are established science or history, and denying their reality or importance. They often have ulterior political motives, but sometimes they just deny because reality makes them feel small or dependent or helpless. There are a lot of denialists:
*Holocaust deniers, who promote the idea that the Holocaust was a hoax. They either flat-out deny it, or, more commonly, they try to say it wasn’t as bad as history would have you believe.
*Anti-vaxxers, who promote the idea that the great public health innovation of the modern world is actually more dangerous than helpful.
*Moon landing nutters, who deny that the U.S. put a man on the moon, and claim it was staged.
*Creationists, who deny the theory of evolution.
*HIV denialists, who deny that HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, which is related to conspiracy theories about how the government is behind AIDS.
I’d probably toss in anti-feminists who deny that domestic violence and rape are significant social problems, as well. Denialists are a particularly toxic group of conspiracy theorist nutters, because they pass themselves off as skeptics. In his book Voodoo Histories, David Aaronovitch explains how denialists wear the sheep’s clothing of skeptics in order to seem reasonable, instead of being the paranoids promoting unbelievable conspiracy theories that they are:
Since 2001, a primary technique employed by more respectable conspiracists has been the advocation of the “It’s not a theory” theory. The theorist is just asking certain disturbing questions because of a desire to seek out truth, and the reader is supposedly left to make up his or her mind. The questions asked, of course, only make sense if the questioner really believes there is a secret conspiracy.
You see this a lot with global warming denialists. They think this quote mined email here or this fishy story about a fraudulent study there is a “disturbing question”, but all they’re really doing is saying, “There’s a vast worldwide conspiracy to perpetuate this hoax, though I can’t come right out and say that without revealing that I’m a conspiracist.” You can tell they’re more devoted to their conspiracy theory than getting to the bottom of things, because they ignore it when their “questions” are answered. If they really cared about being satisfied, when their questions were answered, they would immediately drop their “skepticism” and realize that global warming is real. Their questions are also often based on incorrect premises. For instance, denialists have “questions” about the “hockey stick”. Setting aside the fact that the “questions” have been answered, and they’re ignoring the answers, the main assumption they’re working under—-that one study out of hundreds being flawed brings the whole thing down—-is simply wrong. Science doesn’t work that way. We’re not talking about the theory that the Bible is infallible, which is something that falls apart the first contradiction you find in the Bible. Science works on the accumulation of data to point us in a direction, not received wisdom.