Climate Change Denier James Delingpole: ‘Hanging Is Far Too Good’ for Climate Scientists
He’d be Britain’s most deranged and dishonest climate change denier if that title weren’t already owned by Christopher Monckton, but today’s article at The Telegraph by James Delingpole breaks new ground, even for him. As Joe Romm puts it at ClimateProgress, this really does amount to hate speech, an especially ugly and virulent form: Denier Delingpole Wishes for ‘Climate Nuremberg’, Says ‘Hanging Is Far Too Good’ for Climate Scientists!
If you ever needed (more) proof that the professional deniers are driven by a mindless rage devoid of any actual science, I urge you to read James Delingpole’s latest piece.
It will nauseate you — consider yourself warned. But I think it’s important to dissect this hate speech in detail because Delingpole seems to think that hate speech isn’t hate speech if you just use rhetoric — the figures of speech, like metaphor.
Having spent a quarter century studying rhetoric and having just published a well-received book on this very subject — Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga — I think I can safely say that is bullshit, though most likely only metaphorical bullshit (see below).
You may recall Delingpole’s 2011 meltdown on the BBC, where they got him to admit he is a hand-waving know-nothing: “It is not my job to sit down and read peer-reviewed papers because I simply haven’t got the time…. I am an interpreter of interpretations.” This pieces makes that meltdown look like the height of lucidity.
The piece is worth examining in detail because I think it is indicative of how the deniers and disinformers really feel — and we’ll know if that’s true if none of them denounce it.
The headline is “An English class for trolls, professional offence-takers and climate activists.” Delingpole is going to lecture us plebes on our native tongue.
Under the headline is the photo above, which is one of the popular pictures of the post-WWII Nuremberg trials in which Nazis were tried for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.” The Telegraph’s caption is simply, “Not pictured: Monbiot, Flannery, Mann….” That would be George Monbiot, Tim Flannery, and Michael Mann.
Deniers like Delingpole, who are fighting like cornered rats to keep humanity from doing anything at all to ameliorate the effects of climate change, are truly awful, awful people.
If Delingpole were alive during the Renaissance he’d have been one of the clergy, accusing Galileo of heresy and calling for his execution.
Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition (James Delingpole, 3rd from left)
