Just plain evil: Anthony Watts and PopTech sink to a new low

I'm not surprised that the despicable denier, PopTech would sink this low, but I must admit that I'm surprised at Anthony Watts, despite all the slime that has come from him over the years. They are both effectively arguing that no descendant of any of the tens of millions of people conscripted to the German armed forces early last century, no matter where they live now, and no matter what their or their forebears' personal beliefs or politics are or were, has any credibility when it comes to climate science. Why? Because they or their ancestors "fought for the Nazis".

It is probably the most abhorrent use of Godwin's Law you can imagine.

Note: See the upshot below in the update.

PopTech is a sleazy lowlife from the USA, who's been polluting the internet for years, most recently as a science denier. He once invaded HotWhopper, anonymously threatening me, claiming to have installed a keystroke logger on my computer, presumably in retaliation for my banning him. (Of course he didn't and couldn't.) I'd say he's of questionable character but that would be wrong. He has no character.

Anthony Watts is an unethical lowlife and a contemptible climate conspiracy theorist who libels climate scientists to supplement his income.

Today Anthony has an article about blogger CitizensChallenge. CC has a couple of blogs and I love his style of writing. It is refreshing and to the point. On his more active blog, CC has been writing some articles exposing the silliness of PopTech's science denial. (The title of this article is taken from CC's latest, which he snagged from a comment.)

Anthony Watts wrote his odious smear under the headline: "Another one of my blog spawn goes up in flames". How did CC go up in flames? Well it turns out that he didn't. PopTech was doing another of his paybacks, because CC had written a series of articles showing up his science denial for what it was. Anthony Watts wrote:

Most of these people are angry and often incompetent  trolls that have been booted off WUWT and other websites because they just don’t play well with others. They serve as prime examples as the sort of ridiculously hateful rhetoric that permeates the alarmist side of the debate. They are all long on emotion and denigration, and short on sensibility.

That's a big fat lie and it's no coincidence that Anthony doesn't link to where he supposedly kicked anyone off his blog, or where they "don't play well" with deniers, or any of their "hateful rhetoric", or any of their "emotion and denigration" or where they are "short on sensibility". He can't. It doesn't exist. If he linked to anything it would show him up as petty, uneducated, ignorant, sexist, cowardly and nasty. But it's not the worst of it. Anthony continued:

As an example, Andrew K. aka “poptech” says he was being harassed by one of my blog spawn. Some people just need to learn to pick their battles, and Andrew was not amused. This is the result: The Truth about What’sUpWithThatWatts, et al.

If showing up the silliness of PopTech's science denial constitutes "harassment", then CC is certainly guilty.  Rather than try to respond with evidence or discussion of the science, PopTech found a personal obituary notice about CC's father, who emigrated to the US from Germany in 1955 and died in 2006. At least he says it is. (CC hasn't has now confirmed that the notice was about his father.) From the notice, if it is CC's father, he was a talented artist and musician, who was injured and became a prisoner of war in Egypt. CC and his father were very close by all accounts, which makes PopTech and Anthony's attack all the more contemptible. PopTech spun the mandatory conscription into the German infantry, which is not the Nazi party but the regular army, as him having "actually fought for the Nazis" - linking to an old obituary notice from Colorado on the WayBack Machine. (There's more, too. He also suggested that CC has "marijuana induced brain damage".)

Anthony Watts has written some really nasty stuff in his time, but this is as low as I have seen him sink. Not able to dispute the science, not even content to attack CC personally, they attack his father who passed away nine years ago, and who seems to have been a wonderful person and a very loving and loved parent, who, probably on his 17th birthday, had the misfortune of being conscripted into the German infantry late in the second world war (1943). CC's father had considerable talent. He was artistic and musical, and played with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. I suspect CC has inherited some of his talent as I believe he's a very gifted craftsman.

Unlike PopTech and Anthony Watts, CC cares deeply for the world he lives in, and clearly loves the natural world and science. He is an eloquent writer who has a solid grasp of climate science. Someone who Anthony Watts and PopTech could learn a lot from, if they had half his intellect. (They don't, so that's purely hypothetical.)

If you think PopTech and Anthony Watts sank to a nauseating new low, Jim Steele goes one lower, and wrote in the comments:

I just realized pop tech had linked tony essays on Meisler. That Meisler grew up in a Nazi family is not surprising.

I'm told to expect increasingly worse behaviour from Anthony Watts and deniers as global warming continues to ramp up. Do you think that's possible? Unfortunately, we are condemned to share the planet with these dregs of humanity. Thankfully there are also truly wonderful climate science champions like CitizensChallenge.

I'll leave it to you to decide the answer to the questions: "Ignorant, stupid, insane or just plain evil? Which category does PopTech fall into?" What category do Anthony Watts and Jim Steele fall into? What category do they aspire to?

Update, hold your nose and mind the smelly shoes

The upshot of Anthony Watts promoting that ugly article is that after 198 comments, he closed the thread in a huff. Anthony Watts wrote the last comment:

January 31, 2016 at 9:41 pm
I understand some people are upset. I get it.

Before passing judgment on what I should or should [not] do, what I should or should not link to, and what I should or should not say, each of you should walk a mile in my shoes and endure what I have to endure every day at the hands of faceless cowards.

With that, I’m closing the thread, as it’s turned into a lot of noise.

Sheesh, I wouldn't want to be within a mile of Anthony's shoes. Imagine. It would take ten lifetimes to get rid of the pong. Remember, Anthony's "mile" consists of attacking and libelling scientists, wading through pseudo-scientific claptrap, rubbing shoulders with people like Jim Steele and Roy Spencer, drowning in the cesspit of Tim Ball's anti-semitic conspiracy theories, and being barraged all day every day by hundreds of empty mindless "thoughts". (Note too Anthony's dig at unspecified "faceless cowards". Has his new chum changed his name to PopTech by deedpoll?)

Anyway, before Anthony limped off in his scruffy smelly sneakers, his very good friend Willis Eschenbach (who holds Anthony's scientific prowess in very low regard) fired a couple of shots across the bow of the once grand WUWT. Willis Eschenbach wrote:

January 31, 2016 at 12:49 pm
Poptech is [trimmed]. Look at his slimy attempted character assassinations of Judith Curry, myself, and others whose scientific work he chances to disagree with.

He is obviously not competent enough to find errors in my work or the work of others, or he would do so. To cover up his inability, he resorts to his stock in trade—character assassinations and ad hominems. He’ll stoop so low as to bring up someone’s divorce, or their education, or the fact that their father was drafted, to try to push his line of nasty bullshit.

He hasn’t seemed to notice that none of those things affect a person’s ability to do science … but then science and Poptech’s point do not exist in the same universe—his point is to try to blacken peoples’ names by the most scurrilous means possible.

I have no idea why Anthony is promoting this sleazebag, but count me out. I have no use for him at all, and were it not for the fact that this is a family blog, I’d tell you what I really think of him.

w.:

And here's an excerpt from Willis' second comment:

Classy. Real classy.

Someday, Poptech, you may actually notice that it doesn’t matter if a scientists never changes his boxer shorts in his entire lifetime, or if he has bad breath, or his day job is cleaning toilets, or he didn’t go to Oxford.

ALL THAT MATTERS IS WHETHER HIS SCIENCE IS SOLID OR NOT.

I've got to say that Willis Eschenbach just saved himself from a HotWhopper article I started, about coccolithophores, and how the factor limiting their growth more than pH is carbon availability for photosynthesis. Maybe later. For now, he has earned a rare pat on the back. Not a huge one, because I know he was partly driven by the fact that PopTech has attacked Willis in the past. And Willis is not immune from attacking scientists himself. Just the same, I'd say he gave Anthony Watts and his lynch mob something to think about, and that's worth a pat.

There weren't many people who were game to stand up to Anthony Watts. I think most people who have a shred of decency departed WUWT quite some time ago, so all he has left are the real dregs of deniersville. That is, the dregs of the dregs of humanity, chomping at the bit for the dog whistle to join a lynch mob.  I'll close with an honourable mention to The Pompous Git, who expressed what most visitors would have been thinking, that is, anyone who accidentally landed at WUWT by mistake:

January 31, 2016 at 9:16 pm
I’m out of here. For some reason I feel dirty. Not the place I remember at all; more like a toilet that hasn’t been cleaned for a long time…

Sou -  Monday 1 February 2016 at 10:10 pm AEDT