{"id":19219,"date":"2023-07-06T17:35:21","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T00:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=19219"},"modified":"2023-07-06T18:22:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T01:22:33","slug":"ignoring-evidence-vs-paying-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2023\/07\/06\/ignoring-evidence-vs-paying-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignoring Evidence vs Paying Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li> The hottest day on Earth, as scientists have anticipated;\n<li> David French on the mindset of MAGA America\n<\/ul>\n<p>As the scientists have been predicting for decades.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/07\/05\/briefing\/00Mexico-heat-visual-fade-slide-16SH\/00Mexico-heat-visual-fade-slide-16SH-threeByTwoSmallAt2X.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, 6 Jul 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/06\/climate\/climate-change-record-heat.html\">Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, Fast<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;From north to south, temperatures are surging as greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and combine with effects from El Ni\u00f1o.&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The past three days were quite likely the hottest in Earth\u2019s modern history, scientists said on Thursday, as an astonishing surge of heat across the globe continued to shatter temperature records from North America to Antarctica.<br \/>\n&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The overall warming of the planet is \u201cwell within the realm of what scientists had projected would happen\u201d as humans continue to pump vast amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth and the payments company Stripe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the whole, Earth has warmed roughly 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century and will continue to grow hotter until humans <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/04\/climate\/climate-change-ipcc-un.html\">essentially halt all emissions<\/a> from fossil fuels and stop deforestation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Will this convince any of the MAGAites who think climate change is a hoax and those elitist scientists are in a vast conspiracy to&#8230; well, whatever is they want to do, control the world? I wouldn&#8217;t count on it.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>More about Trump and the MAGAs. (Sigh.) This piece has an unusual insight. It reminds me of an item several weeks ago (it was the letter to the NYT quoted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2023\/04\/29\/gun-violence-and-mental-illness\/\">this post<\/a>) that suggested that for many people guns, even military-style assault weapons, are adult toys. For people who have nothing better to do.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/07\/06\/opinion\/06french-newsletter-image\/06french-newsletter-image-superJumbo.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, David French, 6 Jul 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/06\/opinion\/maga-america-trump.html\">The Rage and Joy of MAGA America<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The columnist reminds his readers that he lives in Tennessee outside Nashville, the world of his friends and many of his family. Where &#8220;Everything is normal until, suddenly, it\u2019s not.&#8221; With the example of a tweet from Representative Andy Ogles who mixed bromides about Founding Fathers and having a blessed Fourth of July with the offhand remark &#8220;Look, the left is trying to destroy our country and our family, and they\u2019re coming after you.&#8221; Then, &#8220;Be safe. Have fun. God bless America.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>French goes on to try to understand this weird mindset. It&#8217;s both anger, and fun. He quotes a 2020 report by Andrew Egger:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For enthusiasts, Trump rallies aren\u2019t just a way to see a favorite politician up close. They are major life events: festive opportunities to get together with like-minded folks and just <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">go crazy <\/em>about America and all the winning the Trump administration\u2019s doing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And then French goes on to speculate why reasonable arguments do not reach them.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Why do none of your arguments against Trump penetrate this mind-set? The Trumpists have an easy answer: You\u2019re horrible, and no one should listen to horrible people. Why were Trumpists so vulnerable to insane stolen-election theories? Because they know that you\u2019re horrible and that horrible people are capable of anything, including stealing an election.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<br \/>\nTrump\u2019s fans, by contrast, don\u2019t understand the effects of that fury because they mainly experience the joy. For them, the MAGA community is kind and welcoming. For them, supporting Trump is fun. Moreover, the MAGA movement is heavily clustered in the South, and Southerners see themselves as the nicest people in America. It feels false to them to be called \u201cmean\u201d or \u201ccruel.\u201d Cruel? No chance. In their minds, they\u2019re the same people they\u2019ve always been \u2014 it\u2019s just that they finally understand how bad <i>you<\/i> are. And by \u201cyou,\u201d again, they often mean the caricatures of people they\u2019ve never met.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<br \/>\nThey see a country that\u2019s changing around them and they are uncertain about their place in it. But they know they have a place at a Trump rally, surrounded by others \u2014 overwhelmingly white, many evangelical \u2014 who feel the same way they do.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<br \/>\nEvangelicals are a particularly illustrative case. About half of self-identified evangelicals now attend church monthly or less often. They have religious zeal, but they lack religious community. So they find their band of brothers and sisters in the Trump movement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Key themes: change, and resistance of change. Tribalism. The decline of church attendance, and the need to find another group to belong to. And resistance to evidence.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>I have another couple links about the state of the economy and how, despite evidence, conservatives still think Biden&#8217;s economy is a disaster. Conservatives always think the economy is a disaster under Democratic administrations, despite evidence. (David Brin has many posts about this.) This dovetails with today&#8217;s posts, and other recent posts. Now, I&#8217;m busy making dinner, and gotta go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The hottest day on Earth, as scientists have anticipated; David French on the mindset of MAGA America As the scientists have been predicting for decades. NY Times, 6 Jul 2023: Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2023\/07\/06\/ignoring-evidence-vs-paying-attention\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19219"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19223,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19219\/revisions\/19223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}