Forearmed is forewarned.
Argumentum ad baculum (Latin for argument to the cudgel or appeal to the stick), also known as appeal to force, is an argument where force, coercion, or the threat of force, is given as a justification for a conclusion. It is a specific case of the negative form of an argument to the consequences.
Mix with some argumentum ad hominem, and you get this thick paste:
That free character assessment emailed to a colleague of climate scientist, Dr. Peter Gleick, is indicative of a claimed rampant cyber-bullying campaign that these scientists are subject to during their working day. On top of these in-box intrusions, work includes dealing with bandwidth-consuming FOI data requests responses, clearing up misrepresentations, IPCC 5AR preparation - and when there is spare time - doing what they signed-up for: climate research.
Until the climate scientist accepts "there’s no such thing as man-made global warming" as true, they will be cyber-bullied.
“Mr. xxx, this is John Q. Public out here. Perhaps you don’t understand there’s no such thing as man-made global warming. I don’t care if you call it f!@%$#%@ing climate change, I don’t f!@%$#%@ing care what you call it. The same thing you communists tried in the 1970s. I’ve got a f!@%$#%@ing 75 articles from Newsweek Magazine stating we were making the earth freeze to death and we would have to melt the f!@%$#%@ing ice caps to save the earth. You, sir, and your colleagues, are progressive communists attempting to destroy America…Your f!@%$#%@ing agenda-driven, money-f!@%$#%@ing grabbing paws and understand there’s no such thing as global warming, you f!@%$#%@ing idiot and your f!@%$#%@ing colleagues.”
I can only think of one other lifesaving profession that has to put up with all that incoming? You could forgive our scientists if they chose to develop similar coping mechanisms.
Argumentum ad baculum takes this form:
Person L says accept argument A or event x will happen.
Event x is bad, dangerous, or threatening.
Therefore, argument A is a good argument.
Until the climate scientist accepts "there’s no such thing as man-made global warming" as true, they will be cyber-bullied.
Cyber-bullying includes being spammed with:
- the discrediting of their work — ("I don’t care if you call it f!@%$#%@ing climate change, I don’t f!@%$#%@ing care what you call it.")
- an incoherent babble attack of fossil-fuel funded talking-points taken from climate denier echo-chamber web-sites — ("The same thing you communists tried in the 1970s. I’ve got a f!@%$#%@ing 75 articles from Newsweek Magazine stating we were making the earth freeze to death and we would have to melt the f!@%$#%@ing ice caps to save the earth."), and
- common insults — ("You, sir, and your colleagues, are progressive communists attempting to destroy America…Your f!@%$#%@ing agenda-driven, money-f!@%$#%@ing grabbing paws..."), ( "...you f!@%$#%@ing idiot and your f!@%$#%@ing colleagues.”)
Therefore, "understand there’s no such thing as global warming"
Argumentum ad baculum is the second best argument against global warming . You can read Climate Progress give The best argument against global warming, here.
If you come across it in the wild: 1) identify it by name, and 2) dismiss it as a logical fallacy. Or, 1) identify it, and 2) take the threatening cudgel away (in this case, by hitting the talk to the firewall button).
No comments:
Post a Comment