In an extensive interview about climate change and energy policy, Richard Tice dismissed the threat of global warming and doubled down on fossil fuels.
The interview is here
Double down on bad information. It’s the worldwide Conservative/hyperneoliberal/post-truth playbook.
They never change their position based on new information.
This is what happens when the faith-based mindset dominates politics.
It’s not so much about being faith-based as having a dark ages approach to epistemology, where “truth” is a social construct rather than something which is an inherently property of the universe, and where the strength of evidence is how you figure out what it is
To a non-religious person I think that is the exact definition of a faith-based mindset.
It’s part of it. Religious groups do a bunch of community building that just doesn’t happen so easily outside of them. A lot of people are involved for that, rather than an epistemic view.
Funny I volunteer doing wildlife rescue, the local library, and the local food pantry. I’ve made deep personal connections to my community in those ways…
… without sacrificing my reasoning capacity
Average religious individual doesn’t either. The kind of thing you’re doing would happen to a much smaller extent without some of the religious groups involved.
Faith is belief without evidence. By definition that is the abdication of reason.
There are very different forms and levels of that. If people are doing shibboleths and understand it as such, that’s harmless. Same goes for sticking together in a world that’s hostile because of their ancestry.
They definitely change their position based on new information. Nuclear power went from desirable to undesirable when it went from nuclear weapons manufacturing to competition with fossil fuels. Climate change went from a future problem to a non-existent problem. Mass migration went from a necessity to do work locals didn’t want to do to the end of western civilization.
They always tell the most convenient lie to increase the power of the elite and break the power of the working class, and as that changes their position changes.
Conservatives are principled people. They believe whole-heartedly that hierarchy is justice. That some should suffer and work hard and others prosper and work little, and they are willing to be the ones that suffer if need be.
I wonder if his position is in any way informed by the donations his party gets from the fossil fuel industry?
And let’s not forget that country that’s most dependent on fossil-fuel sales for its export earnings.
Hard not to be when you get to buy nice mansions with those donations.
