Global Warming: what drives people to follow the flock? fear or laziness?

Question

The right to exercise our own capacity of evaluation seems to be getting misunderstood by "being selfish, not caring about humanity and the environment, etc, etc, etc",

WHY?

Why is that some people choose to think like the majority? Are they driven by some kind of fear or it’s just being lazy?

Doesn’t it seem like through the decades we have been slowly induced to use less of our more evolved part of our brain (the prefrontal cortex) and use more the primitive side of it (which runs automatically , occupying less of our thoughts and thus making less effort)?

What’s your opinion about it?

Answer 1

Both,

-fear of what other people think,

-laziness: it's easier to believe the media and keep on going

Answer 2

yes i agree totaly i belive its fear b/c whos eaiser to control selfish lazy ppl or scared ppl looking for hope. as I see it the human race is devolving.  4 the goverments its easier to control scared ppl by giving them false hope also going green generates billions of tax dollars

Answer 3

Birds of a feather flock together.  It is interesting that many of the gloom and doom scenarios are pushed by the same sort of people.  Acid rain, nuclear winter, global cooling, ozone depletion, global warming, etc are part of a leftist mindset.  

The leftist mindset, automatically assumes a greater knowledge than it actually has.  For example, the leftists assume that they can control an economy and make better decisions than millions of people performing in a free market even though it has been demonstrated time and again that they are wrong.  

These same leftists go on to think they know more about science than they do.  They suggest that they have proven humans have caused global warming but it is more about wishful thinking IMO.

They certainly believe in a central authority but most probably feel they are leaders rather than followers.  In my opinion, they are wrong about that assumption as well.

Note: Ken gave me a good laugh:

He said:

"Only the moderate middle seems able to evaluate issues like this without putting their ideology in front of their rational through processes."

Moderates stick their fingers in the wind and then decide which way to think.  They don't have any ideas of their own, that is why their moderates.  Strattling a fence or sitting in the middle of the road can be extremely hazardous to various body parts and certainly doesn't indicate any individual thought or creativeness.

Answer 4

Science.

Answer 5

Most people really don't care. The average person wants to get up, eat and have s*x. That's why the voting average is so low. Most people just don't care. And sadly the people who do care sometimes end up feeling so helpless that they don't do anything about it. Even sadder are the people who do have the drive, but only for selfish ends.

Even when you have a basically good person, they look around at the world and think, What can I DO? And the answer is nothing. Or Everything. What people need is someone that will stand up with a vision of hopw for the future, someone that is, or can get into a position where they can change things the average person can't. This person doesn't need to be special, or better than anyone else, they just need to be able to inspire.That's why Obama is so popular.

Answer 6

The vast majority of people are intellectually lazy and undereducated.  Thus, they will believe whatever their chosen pundits (Limbaugh or Franken, right or left) tell them.  The same is true both for the far right conservatives and the far left liberals. Only the moderate middle seems able to evaluate issues like this without putting their ideology in front of their rational through processes.

Fortunately, most scientists are more interested in science than politics.  So those of us with sufficient education that aren't intellectually lazy or prejudiced, based on political ideology, can read what they write in the scientific literature and conclude that global warming is a real threat.

You'll find the same situation in religion (i.e. those at the extreme ends are unwilling to honestly evaluate any evidenced that doesn't fit with their preconceived notions) and many other areas.

Answer 7

Because you're not REALLY exercising your capacity of evaluation. You're really just looking for an excuse to take the word of Rush, Sean, and Inhofe.

If you really want to exercise your capacity for evaluation, look at these data from the stratosphere for the last 50 years, and explain why, to your own satisfaction, the stratosphere has been cooling at the same time the surface has been warming:

http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/temp/sterin...

http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadat/hadat2...

Why is that even important? Because that's how you tell the difference between anthropogenic global warming and the natural kind.

http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report...

So go right ahead. Use that prefrontal cortex. But do us all a favor and stop ignoring the data. That just makes you look willfully ignorant, instead of merely misguided.

Answer 8

Global warming is about politics.  There is precious little science involved, but what little there is is used in dishonest and fear-mongering ways.  

The flock will always follow their leftist agendas, they don't know enough to be independant and make their own choices.

Answer 9

Reading.

Answer 10

It is called fundamentalism because it requires no thought on the part of the individual. My grandfather taught me that there are two ways peoples minds work. The greatest majority have inductive minds and anything these minds contain is placed there by somebody else. The other mental type is called deductive and these people are always searching and inquiring to find the best information and evidence so they can make well-informed decisions. The inductive mind makes for a faithful follower who will never argue with his inductor and accepts his inductors words as gospel no matter how fantastic they might seem to be.

The deductive mind on the other hand will accept nothing on faith and must have proper evidence provided to support any concept promoted to them. Those who think deductively are doubters and deniers of unproven doctrines and they are stubborn people who will search out the evidence to prove, that which is provable. The adherents of the AGW doctrines are faithful inductive followers of those who taught them to be faithful. Deductive thinkers search for truth and proof and thus they will always deny that which can only be proven through faith alone

Answer 11

selfishness. Everything bad people do is based on being selfish.