re: #239 calochortus

Which is why we shouldn’t leave large areas of knowledge out of general education. Once it’s only “experts” who have a basic understanding of things like science, the general populace has no way to judge who is correct.

It isn’t even just that. It is basic, how do you go about thinking stuff that we fail at teaching.

For example, a common denier meme is that AGW breaks the first law of Thermodynamics.

They confuse it with the zeroeth law and claim that heat flows from hot to cold. So how can more heat from the sun come in from the cold of space to heat the Earth more?

I have actually seen people post this tripe.

No forget about thermodynamics for a second and ask yourself this:

Is it hotter in the shade or in the sunlight?

If what they were saying is correct, then the Sun could never warm anything at all - ever. Yet we know from everyday experience that it is hotter in the sunlight than in the shade.

So clearly the argument must be wrong.

What bothers me, is that people can’t even think that much. They are that fucking stupid.