My, oh, my! We environmentalists are such alarmists. After all, the latest scientific evidence is that we have at least ten to fifteen more years until the point of no return. Oh, but we’re talking about deniers, so it doesn’t matter if there is scientific evidence. That’s the denier mentality. Most likely a fair number of the deniers in our government will not be alive to see that day, so why should they care?
The mentality of the denier is utterly fascinating. Totally wrong and usually dangerous, but really quite fascinating. I would have less anxiety studying such though process if it weren’t that it is the deniers who are currently running this country and they’re pushing hard to remove any programs that might save or salvage our environment and our lives. Nature will ultimately prevail but we won’t be around to enjoy that.
The denier mentality is nothing new, but prior to 2017 I don’t believe that the blatant denier of established fact had much credibility. It appears that we have Kellyanne Conway to thank for the term “alternative facts” and a credibility for denying and lying. On January 22, 2017 Trump’s campaign strategist and counselor, Kellyanne Conway, defended totally erroneous information provided to the press by Press Secretary, Sean Spicer. (i) She called the erroneous information “alternative facts” and a new term, a godsend to liars, narcissists and deniers, was born. She later appeared on Meet the Press where, in defending the administration making false claims and losing credibility, she said “Our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that, but the point remains that ….” Meet the Press host, Chuck Todd, interrupted. “Wait a minute. Alternative facts? … Alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.” (ii)
This term, “alternative facts”, was coined for the purpose of justifying a press secretary who gave totally erroneous information about Trump’s inauguration attendance. Actually I don’t care about how many people did or did not attend the event. I do care about the fact; i.e. the truth; that this was the justification for the first of thousands of pieces of misleading information and outright lies. When has an administration made so many false or erroneous statements that people are actually tracking, categorizing and documenting? In fact, a January 20, 2020 Washington Post article written by Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly, entitled “President Trump made 16,241 false or misleading claims in his first three years.” states,
“We started this project as part of our coverage of the president’s first 100 days, largely because we could not possibly keep up with the pace and volume of the president’s misstatements. We recorded 492 claims – an average of just under five a day – and readers demanded that we keep it going for the rest of Trump’s presidency. Little did we know what that would mean. In 2017, Trump made 1,999 false or misleading claims. In 2018, he added 5,689 more, for a total of 7,688. And in 2019, he made 8,155 suspect claims.” (iii)
I’m not writing to argue about “alternative facts”. Any reasonably intelligent person knows that a fact is a fact is a fact is a fact. There is no alternative. An alternative to a fact is a non-fact, a lie, an untruth. If you believe that something considered “a fact” is wrong, and you can prove it, what you provide is not an “alternative fact” but “the fact” because a fact is something that is known or proven to be true. Opinions are not fact. They hopefully contain fact but fact is not essential for an opinion. One can hold the opinion that the sky is actually orange, that’s why we get orange and red sunsets, and that opinion doesn’t make the sky orange. It is strictly opinion. My essays are my opinion. I work hard to present truth and facts in them, which I document in my footnotes, but my opinion still isn’t the fact or the truth. For me to say that climate change deniers are wrong is simply opinion. For me to provide thousands of documented facts, replicated studies, and peer reviewed articles is something else. Now we’re talking about fact.
The point of bringing this up is that we see here the ease at which our current GOP Congress and Administration will spout “alternative facts” and expect the American public to accept them as truth. The fact that there are so many people who will accept the concept of “alternative facts” and accept and believe irrefutably erroneous statements is a sad commentary on our population, but, to avoid getting any farther afield, I must defer this line of thought to the reader. I would recommend reading Charles P. Pierce’s book “Idiot America: how stupidity became a virtue in the land of the free.” (iv)
Honest. I haven’t forgotten what started this. We were talking about the denier mentality. “Alternative facts” have given credibility to the denier: ‘My opinion is as good as your fact.’ I guess we can’t see this as too new. Kellyanne Conway just gave it a name. Galileo had the evidence that the earth revolves around the sun, but the Roman Catholic Church (the denier) called that heresy. He ended up in house arrest from circa 1610 to his death in 1642. (v) “Alternative fact” dominated until the truth absolutely overwhelmed the church.
Of course, you and I both know that the scientific world has provided overwhelming fact that the sixth mass extinction is real, climate change is real, and that the extinction’s time line has been dramatically pushed up as a result of human behavior. 97% of the world scientist actually agree. The denier’s reaction is to attempt to discredit the scientist. They make no attempt to argue or discredit expert data and research. They personally attack the scientist as heretics; saying that the scientists are purposely perpetrating a hoax to mislead the general public for political gain. What political gain? The only one who has anything personal to gain is the capitalist denier who is making a fortune by not addressing the problems. The longer the capitalist can keep our government and millions of people deniers, the more money she/he will make.
The biggest problem with the denier mentality is that it is based upon a ‘my-mind-is-made-up-don’t-confuse-me-with-facts’ attitude. This in itself precludes any discussion, debate or argument. It is easy, comfortable, and now, suddenly, powerful to be a denier. To argue that there will not be a sixth mass extinction requires an argument, fact or at least some semblance of data or proof. To argue that humans are not responsible for the rapidity at which the extinction approaches requires an argument, fact or at least some semblance of data or proof. To argue that climate change is a hoax requires an argument and evidence that we environmentalist and scientist have fabricated our data. The denier can’t come up with the data or the proof, so it is much easier, and currently more powerful, just to deny what we say and attack us personally. Let him have the rat.
FOOTNOTES.
(i) Blake, Aaron (1/22/2017). “Kellyanne Conway says Donald Trump’s team has ‘alternative facts.’ Which pretty much sdays it all.” Washington Post. see also: New York Post (1/22/2017) “Conway: Trump spokesman gave alternative facts.”
(ii) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts#:~:text=%22Alternative%20facts%22%20was%20a%20phrase,President%20of%20the%20United%20States. This article is very well documented if you care about things like facts.
(v) https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/galileo-is-accused-of-heresy#:~:text=Galileo%20was%20ordered%20to%20turn,and%20secluded%20during%20the%20trial.
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