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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Does conspiracy theorists' paradise, WUWT, beat Judith Curry's denier heaven?

Sou | 12:31 AM Go to the first of 7 comments. Add a comment

Not wanting to be outdone by Judith Curry's recent demonstration of her blog as denier heaven, Anthony Watts decides to prove that his blog is conspiracy theorists' paradise. (A lot more fodder for Professor Lewandowsky.)

In a wonderful display of paranoia, Anthony Watts has posted another article (archived here) by Stanmore Coal director, Viv Forbes.

It starts off describing all the villains behind that dreaded conspiracy to try to keep the world liveable - Agenda 21. Viv wrote:
What great cause could unite Prince Charles, President Obama, the Pope, the Arab Oil sheiks, the United Nations, the European Union, the Russians, the Chinese, Pacific Island Nations, most undeveloped countries, the glitterati of Hollywood, left-wing politicians, unrepentant reds, government media, the climate research industry, Big Oil, Big Gas and the Green Blob. It must be something posing a clear and urgent danger to all humanity?
No, the crusade that unites them all is the War on Carbon Fuels, focussed mainly on that most vilified target, coal.
The biggest group, and the generals in this war on carbon, have no real interest in the facts or science of global climate change – they see climate alarmism as a great opportunity to achieve their goal of creating an unelected global government. They have even laid out their plans in a document called Agenda 21.

Agenda 21 is an action plan for sustainable development, It frightens the pants off conspiracy nutters, who seem to think it's an evil plot to strip them of the money and property - or something like that. According to WUWT-ers it's an evil communist plot, or a fascist plot, or both.

Viv Forbes seems to think that the whole world is against him. He may be right, though I don't imagine too many people have heard of him. His main claim to fame are his silly articles at WUWT - such as this and this and this and this.

Viv goes on to claim:
This group naturally includes the United Nations and all of its subsidiaries, the EU, and left wing politicians and media everywhere.
It makes me wonder if Viv knows anything about the United Nations. There are 193 member states of the United Nations and they are most definitely not all "left wing". Viv might also be interested in the fact that most centrist and right wing politicians also support climate action.  In the UK the leaders of three political parties (Conservative, Liberal Democrats and Labour) have just signed a joint pledge to tackle climate change.

Here are some of the weird and wonderful fears of Viv Forbes:

  • destroy what is left of free enterprise and private property
  • enrich and entrench their ruling classes
  • new crusades to energise their supporters and get the donations rolling in
  • In the dark corner are the anti-human Malthusians and the Deep Greens who want to get rid of most of us other people 
  • their goal of reduced world population


For what I think is the first time, we see this disclaimer at WUWT:
Disclosure: Viv Forbes is a shareholder and non-executive director of a small Australian coal exploration company. His views are not shared or supported by most Big Coal CEO’s.

I wonder if someone at Stanmore Coal has decided enough is enough, and wants to distance the company from Viv Forbes and his paranoid ravings.


From the WUWT comments


Interestingly, a small number of the WUWT-ers also want to be distanced from Viv and his paranoid conspiracies. Not most, but a few spoke out. As you'd expect of a conspiracy theory blog, though, most of the commenters at WUWT are conspiracy theorists, too.

milodonharlani wrongly alleges fraud and fakery and gatekeeping. He provides no evidence - he has none.
February 17, 2015 at 12:27 pm
Not only have some “researchers” been “caught manipulating records & results”, but their ringleaders have been observed conspiring to keep genuine science from seeing the light of day, & succeeding.

Graham is another conspiracy theorist and says:
February 17, 2015 at 10:23 pm
Spot on!
Agenda 21, which incorporates socialist climate change hysteria as just one part
http://www.galileomovement.com.au/docs/gw/EvidenceThat_AGW_PartOf_UN_Agenda21.pdf
is a dream come true for socialists and wannabe dictators.
We are so fortunate that we have the UN dictators to save us from climatic armageddon!

As Sir Harry Flashman notes:
February 17, 2015 at 12:53 pm
For a minute I thought I was reading the Onion. When you guys jump the shark, you do it in style.

MCourtney doesn't approve of this particular conspiracy (some, but not this one)
February 17, 2015 at 1:07 pm
Unfortunately yes.
The article really should stock to the proven facts – the discovery of compromised funding for green movements (Russia and Saudi Arabia) is based on evidence and is worth discussing.
The global conspiracy of the UN, EU, the British Royal Family and the Lizardmen is more suited to a Left Behind dramatization. Embarrassing.

Neither does rodmol@virginmedia.com  who wrote:
February 17, 2015 at 1:30 pm
This is a fine example of tin foil hat thinking……
“They have even laid out their plans in a document called Agenda 21.”
..
Flashman is right 

Sir Harry drew out a lot of other paranoid conspiracy theorists. The nutters at WUWT really and truly do think that Agenda 21 is an evil plot to take over the world. I mean really and truly. Take a gander at these comments:

goldminor
February 17, 2015 at 5:32 pm
@rodmol…I guess I have a tin foil hat then and didn’t know it, because Agenda 21 to me looks like a carefully laid out plan to gain control over everyone through the auspices of a global bureaucracy….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21

RockyRoad asserts that Sir Harry is committing genocide on the world's poor:
February 17, 2015 at 1:37 pm
Stick lumps of coal in your eyes and fingers in your ears if you must, “Sir Harry”, but nothing you say rises above the level of nefarious drivel.
But here’s where I’m going to get really serious on you–it is people like you who are committing genocide on the world’s poor. You and everybody that adheres to inane policies that make it difficult for the poor to survive are guilty.
You’re responsible for millions of deaths and incalculable suffering.
Why?
You’ll have to answer that damning question yourself, but no respectable human could justify what you and your ilk are doing to other humans.
None whatsoever.
So be smug in your indefensible position if you want; impose unjustified criticism on truth-seekers if you must; but know this–you are guilty.

Streetcred
February 17, 2015 at 2:04 pm (extract)
Agenda 21, on the other hand, is truly, a catastrophic threat to Mankind.

Mark T, when it was pointed out that President George Bush adopted it, wrote:
February 17, 2015 at 7:22 pm
It’s only “voluntary” if the people themselves adopt it. As it stands, a bureaucratic organization set up a socialist framework (based on Marx’ principles, no less) for controlling world wealth, and all of the equally socialist leaders happily “signed on.” It is exactly what we think it is, you from the left excluded. It is a plan to redistribute the wealth of the world to those in need… and the already fabulously wealthy. That’s how socialism works
Mark
PS: call it socialism, fascism, communism, Marxism, whateverism, it is a plan for collectivist (the collective, e.g., society, is more important than the individual) control that takes power from the individual (read: the people) and gives it to the privileged. It is about control, it is tyranny. Agenda 21 is very real and very dangerous, the illiterati simply don’t understand. Rather than quoting Wikipedia, MCourtney, why not do something less disingenuous and quote the actual document.

hunter was another rare one who went against the tidal wave of this particular paranoid delusion and promoted one of his own - the "social madness of CO2 obsession":
February 17, 2015 at 2:47 pm
The merits of pointing the climate of corruption that pervades this social madness of CO2 obsession is completely lost, in my opinbion, when UN agendas and one world government is invoked. It is like a giant Godwin’s law fail.
I would ahve required Viv Forbes to do a rewrite prior to publishing it here.
With all due respect it only makes WUWT look less than serious.

hunter expands on his own particular conspiracy theory:
February 18, 2015 at 2:37 am
MCourtney,
You seem to miss the actual point of what I wrote:
The climate community reeks with corrupt practices and self-serving hype.
The social madness of the climate obsessed is dangerous.
Anything that distracts from that is not helpful.


goldminor on proof:
February 17, 2015 at 6:21 pm
Nature seems to be doing a good job of handling this perceived problem.
Even if the average temp of the world increases by several degrees there is no proof that this condition would be harmful to mankind.

Unmentionable is tired of it all
February 18, 2015 at 2:16 am
I’m rather tired of reading collective conspiracy theories and incidental innuendo.
The facts and data are enough. I think we would do very well to stick to those and disregard the narrative of propaganda-ism, and the growing disappointing tendency for bloggers to revel in it and accentuate it.
Personally I do not want being scientifically skeptical associated in any way with the conspiracy theory mongering cohort.
I think that would be a terrific mistake and our guards should always be up against it. 

7 comments:

  1. Maybe Climategate 3.0 (to be expected in time for the Paris talks) will feature emails received from the lizardman mothership.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "What great cause could unite Prince Charles, President Obama, the Pope, the Arab Oil sheiks, the United Nations, the European Union, the Russians, the Chinese..."

    The Chinese? But I thought the US and Europe taking action to limit emissions was futile because of the Chinese love affair with coal, which will never end?

    Can't these people keep their stories straight?

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  3. Global warming promotion is obviously a massive conspiracy of bicycle and stage coach manufacturers and horse breeders.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Viv, you are being shabbily treated on WUWT. Time to move on.
    You'll be welcomed with open arms here

    ReplyDelete
  5. Are we are about to see an outbreak of competition, as Judith and WUWT compete for page-views and content?

    This looks remarkably similar to the situation within the US Republican Party, where factions and politicians compete for support by going towards the Right extremities of positions on issues- hence the rise of the Tea Party.

    Note that this is in contrast to the situation at election time, when the GOP turns itself inside out trying to appear moderate, in order to appeal to the mass of voters in the middle of the political spectrum.

    Judith had been able to maintain some credibility by presenting herself, and her website, as sceptical and open to new evidence, but no longer. I look forward to watching as Judith and WUWT compete themselves into a frenzy of drooling denierdom and ever-widening international conspiracy.

    ReplyDelete