Truth Crusade, First Installment
So, Big Truth vs. Big Lie
"Big Lies" are the bread and butter, the hard currency, the soul of propaganda. They so deviate from the truth that they elicit this response: "Man, that wouldn't say something that crazy unless it was true." Then to augment the outrageousness comes REPETITION, repetition, repetition... "Man, I hear that all the time. It must be true."
Everybody - EVERYBODY - is capable of being propagandized. Some of us more, some less; our susceptibility distributed along a normal curve, like everything else. So a really good Big Lie propaganda campaign can convince a very large portion of the population it targets. For instance, one whole side of the normal curve. Or even almost everybody.
Whenever I hear of a substantial number of folks who share a specific belief that defies logic or scientific findings, I suspect propaganda has worked. The anti-vaxers are a current example. Childhood jabs actually don't cause autism, but there is a host of folks who firmly believe they do. The have been propagandized.
But this is not the subject of "Truth Crusade, First Installment." The Big Lie here is
BIG LIE (Defies logic and scientific findings, the propagandists profit from the lie.)
"Climate change is a hoax." sub: The climate always changes, so this isn't serious. Humans aren't affecting the climate because only God could do that. Slowing climate change will destroy the economy. Plus many variations"
BIG TRUTH (Logical and reflective of most current and credible scientific findings.)
We are Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future Things are far worse than you are hearing. Climate change is upon us and it's going to change everything, definitely not for the better.
Obviously it's important that we make big, fast and correct decisions. Here' is the very latest high-credibility science.
EEEEK! (Click it if you dare.)
Bottom line: The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms—including humanity—is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts. For instance:
- Humanity is causing a rapid loss of biodiversity and, with it, Earth's ability to support complex life.
- We are already on the path of a sixth major extinction. It is now scientifically undeniable. (~75% of all life threatened)
- Our current and planned solutions are inadequate to the point of ineffectual.
- We are diving headlong into a ghastly future of mass extinction, collapsing economies, declining health, and climate-disruption upheavals including looming massive human migrations and resource conflicts this century.
- We must make huge changes in almost everything we do or the effects will be catastrophic.
- The greatest roadblock to our saving ourselves is ignorance and disbelief of the problem.
AND THAT'S THE TRUTH. I GIVE MY WORD.
[I know, I know. Science advances. Today's best conclusions might be disproven tomorrow. Forecasting is fraught. Life is uncertain. But this is the best there is right now. That always as near to "truth" as we can get. But it's one helluva lot better than on-purpose lies.]
Read the research paper. Check the credibility of the authors. Check their references. Research independently. Truth sometimes hurts.
Stay tuned for more "Big Lie/ Big Truth" features.
---A million species are at risk, sayeth the U.N.
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