They're saying 2015 was the hottest year ever recorded — and given some of the weather that parts of this country endured, that's easy to believe. But some folks still won't believe it. They've gotten so deep into their denial of Climate Change that they simply can't climb their way out and admit that, uh, maybe they were wrong. Jonathan Chait is eager to see how George Will is going to pooh-pooh this latest blow to his talking points.
Back in my college days, I had a run-in with a gentleman (I'm being nice calling him that) who was writing books and lecturing that the Holocaust was a hoax; that hardly a Jew died at the directive of the deeply-wronged A. Hitler. He even offered a big cash prize for anyone who could prove the Holocaust had really happened…but that prize was unclaimable because of the rules this Franz Liebkind clone had decreed. They said that he could reject "obviously phony evidence" and of course, since he knew the Holocaust has not occurred, any evidence that suggested it had was phony.
A debating society with which I was involved briefly tried engaging the guy, more for sport than out of any hope that he could be convinced. The obvious problem was that you weren't asking this guy to change his mind. You were asking him to give up the somewhat lucrative profession on which he had based the last 20+ years of his life and you were asking him to admit he'd been a fool. It wasn't like the way you or I could decide that we no longer thought Bill Cosby was a great guy. We had none of our lives invested in the premise that he was. We didn't lose a nickel changing our minds.
I have friends who get frustrated at the outrageous statements of Trump, Palin, Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc. But those outrageous statements are those folks' careers and they've gotten them where they are. Ann Coulter is only famous for saying inflammatory things. If tomorrow she admitted she was wrong, her livelihood and fame would evaporate. Very few human beings ever give all that up. In most cases, their brains won't allow them to believe their worlds are based on false premises. People don't want to feel they're living a lie.
Slowly but surely, some Climate Change deniers are coming around. That's because there is always new data, always new unprecedented weather. I have one acquaintance who after years of saying it was all a hoax perpetrated by Al Gore, decided to switch positions. He more or less admitted to me that he figured his conversion was unavoidable; that eventually, there'd be physical destruction so severe he'd have to admit he was wrong and that it might be less painful to do that now, rather than wait 'til Florida is relocated next door to Atlantis. George Will may even make that decision sooner or later but some folks never will.
Those who insist Barack Obama was born in Kenya have been able to deny all the evidence to the contrary and it's unlikely anything new and undeniable will ever turn up…so that position is safe. But Climate Change just brings new information every month and every year. It's going to be interesting to see how long some of those deniers can hold out.