It’s finally here! A day for Warmists to argue with all their bestest of friends and relatives! Well, really, they argue every day (right before they use a ton of electricity and travel in fossil fueled vehicles), but, now they can do it to a relatively captive audience which just wants to watch parades, football, and have pleasant conversation with people, some of whom they haven’t seen in some time. The NY Times’ John Schwartz is on it
It’s Cold Outside? Gather Around the Turkey and Argue About Climate Change.
It’s going to be a chilly Thanksgiving in the Northeast, with near-record cold temperatures in some cities. Which means, of course, that you can expect to get an earful from Uncle Walter over your turkey and stuffing about how global warming is just a hoax. He might bring up sunspots. Or something about Al Gore.
Many of us have an Uncle Walter, to borrow the character from the Ben Folds Five song, in some form. People can be cantankerous and counterfactual at any age.
But how to respond?
Well, first of all, it is undeniably going to be colder than usual for this time of year. On Twitter, Zeke Hausfather, a climate researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, delivered a forecast of frigid temperatures and a high probability of climate denial:
https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1064379407039553537
See, when a small area is above normal, that is Definitive Proof Of Anthropogenic Climate Change doom. When a huge swath of America is below average (and into Canada, a good chunk of Europe, and parts of South America and half of Australia, the latter two which are in late spring), well, that means nothing. It’s surprising that it’s not being positioned as being caused by ‘climate change’.
We have discussed how to survive the Thanksgiving climate change argument before. The trick is not to get flustered in the moment that your debate partner brings up a theory or nugget of truthiness that you haven’t encountered before, such as a reference to the medieval warm period (irrelevant) or the allegation that the planet is actually cooling (nope).
If you must rebut, take a deep breath and excuse yourself for research. With the internet on our phones, a quick trip to the bathroom is like visiting the library, and sites like Skeptical Science and the denial response collection at Grist can be helpful.
Or you could refuse to engage. That’s what Mr. Hausfather does. He, too, has “a couple of Uncle Walters†on his wife’s side of the family, he said. “In general, there are just certain conversational topics we tend to avoid talking about at the Thanksgiving table to ensure civility.â€
The problem here, of course, is that most of these conversations are started by hardcore liberals. Because everything is political to them. Yet, they usually do not know what they’re talking about beyond a few talking points and slogans, hence the reason to excuse yourself for research.
Conservatives do not need this kind of advice. The ones who tend to start this stuff are usually liberals, and in cases when they don’t, they make it too hardcore. Even when they start it, they make it too hardcore, because someone dared respond. The Huffington Post continues to retweet this October 31 article
It doesn't have to be this way. https://t.co/3g1tES487y
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) November 22, 2018
The NY Times has three articles on getting into arguments showing in the opinion section on the front page (here, here, and here). Other outlets are running their own, because this has become a thing. And because it has Become A Thing, many others are recommending staying away from certain topics and/or how to de-escalate. Which is something those of us who aren’t Democrats already know how to do (unless we’re simply trolling for a good laugh. It can be a good way to get Democrats to stomp off and sulk so we can watch football).
On the plus side, in reality, despite all these pieces, most people aren’t going to get into an argument. It’s just the media with too much time on their hands.
