Climate propaganda is everywhere
Last week I discussed propaganda from a theoretical standpoint. This week I wish to outline one prominent example, narrowing my focus to propaganda used for political ends. Those ends are essentially two: to upset the existing order, or to enforce conformity to the new order.
To review, five factors must be present in effective propaganda. First, some kernel of truth must be present. Objective facts, albeit highly selective, must be asserted. Second, some level of discontent must be present. Third, the propaganda must fall on fertile soil. Seeds do not sprout otherwise. Fourth, the propagandists must continuously use all means at hand. The 20th century spread of mass communication greatly assists in this effort. Fifth, dissent must be suppressed. There are more, but these five are at the heart of effectiveness.
There are many candidates for analysis, but far and away the best example is “Climate Change '' Unless we stop our hydro-carbon based ways, it is asserted, the world and everyone in it is doomed. The selective facts are that the world has been slowly warming over the past century or so, and this warming has been associated with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and carbon dioxide.
Then we move from facts to assertions. If the warming continues, sea levels will rise, weather will become more extreme, forest fires will be worse, the permafrost will melt, and so forth and so on. To stop this we must, among other things, wean ourselves off the use of hydrocarbons. To do that, massive changes to our standard of living and the social order must be made. Five dollar gasoline is just a start.
Discontent is propagated through the blatant use of fear. True, things may not be all that bad now, but just you wait!
Fertile soil is the deep and widespread notion that any problems can be solved by scientists and experts serving benign governments. For that matter, climate aside, there is virtually no problem government can’t fix, from COVID to soil erosion. Hundreds of agencies, thousands of regulations, and billions of dollars see to our well-being.
Climate propaganda is everywhere. Almost every outlet of mass communication is used. No day goes by without some “news” of the latest threat posed by humans and their hydrocarbon using ways. Over the past half century these threats have changed, but that’s forgotten. Early on we were running out of oil, so had to switch to conserve it and other of “Our Precious Natural Resources,” many of which were supposed to be gone by now. “Experts and scientists” at The Club of Rome and MIT used computer models to show how soon we were all doomed unless we changed our ways by moving to a carefully controlled society. Guess who would do the controlling.
Parenthetically, doomsday keeps getting put off. A Stanford professor wrote a big best-seller in 1968 titled “The Population Bomb.” Mass starvation was about to occur in just a few years. Al Gore said the Arctic ice would be gone by the early to mid-teens. Still frozen like a brick, or at least it was the last time I flew over it (2017), these predictions go down the memory hole, or are modified to say the experts were right — they just had the timing wrong. People also sell lots of books predicting Christ’s Return and the End of Time. Always wrong; but that never seems to dampen future sales by those who now, they assure us, have got the timing right.
Last, dissent must be suppressed. No departure from climate change orthodoxy is to be found in any mainstream publication or outlet. No dissenting professors will be hired or kept by the overwhelming majority of universities. No government grants will be given to dissenters. Teachers, textbooks and classroom discussions must conform. Those who don’t are labeled “climate deniers,” and held up to the same ridicule as Holocaust deniers.
Now, will all this prove effective in the long run? You’ll have to wait for next week to find out.
Charles C. Milliken is a professor emeritus after 22 years of teaching economics and related subjects at Siena Heights University. He can be reached at milliken.charles@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Charles Milliken: Climate propaganda is everywhere
