Big business donates money to think tanks and politicians that gets pumped out as propaganda to people attuned to whatever political spectrum. Hence: idiocracy.

Talking points memos get put out, Limbaugh and the like repeat them ad nauseum, wash rinse repeat.

You learned science in school,l while the majority of the electorate learned it on AM radio, and the radio said you're wrong and evil.

That's where Ted Cruz learned about net neutrality. That and from the Comcast execs who's dicks he sucked.

florida sells a lot of real estate to retirees and snowbirds - which could tank the market if people realize what a terrible investment buying property in america's dick really is

so yeah, people will die at some point, but most of these legislators will be dead or able to move before the troubles really start

Hippies embraced environmentalism. So what's the problem with hippies? Hippies also openly rejected mainstream America, and as soon as you do that, not only do you piss people off, but those people will then reject everything that the hippies lay claim to, including peace love and understanding (to say nothing of environmentalism). Apes, tribes, and so on.

Anti-environmentalism a situation that business is happy to exploit as it sees fit, or if they phrase it in a pro-business way, they can boast about their environmentalism too. They play both sides.

Pretty much what Bort said. It's an easy item to polarize the voters to the point where "everything the other side thinks is always wrong, even science".

The problem is class. The thinking is that if you care about the birds and the flowers, you're obviously doing well enough to not worry too much about paying the rent. This isn't necessarily true: it's not just the rich who might have an economic stake in a decently healthy environment. But you can't tell that to some people. Also: hippies. And stupid, spiteful, sad people in general.

I think it's less the environment thing and more just the fact that this is pretty much the way American society works. For us, Politics is theatre, a tribal ritual similar in form and function to a sports match, where we get to watch Our Team fight the Other Guys. Everything is fed to us through a highly-sophisticated filter of entertainment and information; is it any wonder that passions run high and tolerance, on either side, is in short supply?

Also, as other people have pointed out, you've got to remember that environmentalism has effects far beyond the environment. Just about every powerful group has a vested interest in it, particularly when you start talking policy; corporations stand to lose or gain vast sums of money depending upon their stock in green technology and ability to manipulate carbon markets, state agencies see opportunities to increase their own power or restrict the power of others, individual opinion-shapers and politicians spot niches in the discourse which they feel that they can fill, and the little guys are caught in the middle, trying to make sure that they say the right things for the crowd they're in, lest they face ostracism and ruin. With all that chaos, it's not hard understand why the one thing that should really matter - the science, which, as always, is a very open, contentious, and evolving thing - has become so compromised. It's why, for example, people feel the need to throw out canvas bags gifted to them at a state-mandated assembly (because BRAINWASHING), or to lie about the state of California's water supply (because SOCIAL PRAGMATISM), and these behaviors are not only considered to be perfectly ordinary, but are usually accepted, with little question, by at least 40% of the population at any one time.

And here I thought 'climate change' was part of a conspiracy to tax everything into oblivion and restrict our freedumb to endlessly consume shit until we die of a preventable lifestyle-related disease.

Hippies. There is a large group of people that would happily jab knives into their own eyes if they thought it would piss off a hippy.

what follows is a true story.

I normally keep this a secret, but this is PoETV and no one reads it so who cares. I tutor Warren Buffett's grandson, and during one session, the night before Obama vetoed the Keystone Pipeline, his phone starts blowing up. This Texas oil magnate is frantically texting him saying--and yes, I read these--"hey ur grampa noes president rite??? tell ur gramp 2 tell obama not do this. bad 4 business etc. plzzzzz". And so on and soforth.

Being close to cirles of power has convinced me, now more than ever, that those in power are every bit as desperate, if not moreso, than the rest of us. They will use any tactic to advance their goals, but they're not sociopaths. They're just very, very shortsighted. But when you make constant compromises, living in constant fear of losing everything and being revealed to be an incompetent fraud, you begin to adopt certain narratives as coping mechanisms.

Do these people really not believe in global warming? Yes and no, I'd imagine. They're not Hitler. If you could clear their minds and say "The position you advocate will result in millions of deaths," I doubt they would twirl their mustache and laugh maniacally. It's that they don't WANT ro believe it. That's the source of the disconnect.

Former denier here. I just didn't believe in it, so when people told me it could kill millions I just brushed it off.

It's hard to cope with the reality that our culture and civilization are destroying the planet we depend on for survival. When you go most of your life not thinking about the consequences of your actions, it's all really quite frustrating when confronted with them. What's worse is if you're wealthy enough, or live in a wealthy enough country, you have the privilege of believing none of it exists because you can avoid the effects of it. For a while anyway.

"Former denier here. I just didn't believe in it, so when people told me it could kill millions I just brushed it off."

Sort of like how atheists are wholly untroubled by warnings about hell, I would imagine.

There's the other part...right-wing interests have been promoting the idea that verifiable facts are something you can choose to believe or not.

You ever read an Internet post that's so leaden with disingenuos sarcasm, incomprehensible puns, and fundamentally muddled arguments that you have no idea what the fuck the person is trying to say?

This is one of those posts. Sometimes, kids, it's best to just say what you mean.

What is so muddled about what I wrote? The notion of climate change and environmentalism is to many a sweeping change and old people are often forcefully resistant to change well past the point of absurdity.

Clearly stated that in the second half of my post.

I say "nigger" all the time but that's just because I'm hardcore racist.

Well, you are a cop.

The only remotely funny open mic standup I've seen in Boston was a bit on how "Voldemort" was the "nigger" of the Harry Potter universe. How an ignorant closeted (literally) white kid naively blurts it out and everyone is like, "Harry! Not cool!" except for the grand wizard who encourages him.

What about all the other grand wizards that tell Harry to stfu with his name? Sounds like that open mic was more like and open and shut case of being shit.