Has Anthony Watts just claimed he's on Scott Pruitt's #climate science denying "Red Team"?

Scott Pruitt
Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

You may have heard that the EPA Secretary, Scott Pruitt, keeps promising to put together a "Red Team" to support him in his rejection of climate science. He's getting names from various unsavoury organisations, I gather. I doubt any of those organisations have suggested WUWT owner and promoter of "climate hoax" conspiracy theories, Anthony Watts. However, it looks as if Anthony is hinting he's on the team.

I stumbled across something at WUWT this morning that suggests this. It was in among a lot of self promotion as an AGU member "in good standing", some misogyny, and various other rantings from Anthony. (What are the criteria for good vs bad standing among AGU membership? If it ever decided to draw a line Anthony would never appear on the "good" side.)

Here's what Anthony wrote, implying that he is already on Scott Pruitt's "Red Team". He was writing how he dislikes New Orleans and doesn't think he'd get enough money from his fans to go this year, so he won't try (or something like that :D). (AGU17 is at New Orleans.) Then he wrote how it's not a bad thing he won't be going, saying:

Good advice for people of all ages - coping with bullies

I spotted a link to this article on the Feministing blog.  It's from HuffPost and lists:

10 Things I Want My Daughter To Know Before She Turns 10

(Loving the symmetry of the headline).

In the context of the early articles on this blog, which aim at getting out of my system the horrible treatment from Greg D'Arcy and the moderators at HotCopper share discussion board (as well as providing a warning for the unwary), item number 8 is worth remembering:

8. It is almost never about you. What I mean is that when people act in a way that hurts or makes you feel insecure, it is almost certainly about something happening inside of them, and not about you. I struggle with this one mightily, and I have tried very, very hard never once to tell you you are being "too sensitive" or to "get over it" when you feel hurt. Believe me, I know how feelings can slice your heart, even if your head knows otherwise. But maybe, just maybe, it will help to remember that almost always other people are struggling with their own demons, even if they bump into you by accident.

The HotCopper experience didn't make me feel insecure.  And I didn't think I was hurt so much as deeply aggrieved and angered.  However that's not quite true - I was hurt.  Particularly as many posters regarded me as having immense patience despite the bullying, stalking and harassment deniers incessantly bombarded.  Even two 'deniers' have indicated they 'missed me' and my science posts, and I believe they were genuine.

The bit about agressors 'struggling with their own demons' is worth bearing in mind.  HotCopper mods must feel very threatened by me and know they cannot justify their actions, because they quickly delete any post that mentions me by name and have reportedly threatened posters who've done so.  That's in contrast to other people they have suspended where they even allowed discussion of the suspension itself when it came to posters such as Voltaire, Cranswick, BigGambler and IronMike among others (subs req'd).

There has been quite a bit of research recently on the mental contortions extreme right wing ideologues have to go through to try to rationalise their opinions and actions.  I'll write more about them here when I get some time.  As a taster, here is an article by Profs Stephan Lewandowsky and Klaus Oberauer about 'mental models'.  A copy of their paper can be found here.

If anyone knows of any research into whether there is a correlation between sexism and right wing fundamentalism, conspiracy ideation and/or rejection of science, particularly climate science, I'd really like to know about it.