Friday, September 14, 2012

Skeptical Science: "[W]e're all a bunch of leftists"


In March of 2012, the climate alarmist website Skeptical Science had their forums "hacked" and the contents posted online. In a forum thread titled, "Political Compass" frequent Skeptical Science commentators and moderators took a political quiz revealing (much to their surprise) they all share the same left-wing political ideology,
"It's official, we're all a bunch of leftists" - John Cook [Skeptical Science], August 26, 2011

"I'm a damn dirty commie" - Dana Nuccitelli [Skeptical Science], August 26, 2011

"OMG, I'm a closet Leftist!" - Daniel Bailey [Skeptical Science], August 26, 2011

"It seems I am on par with Nelson Mandela" - perseus [Skeptical Science], August 26, 2011

"Turns out we're all a bunch of soppy leftists" - MarkR [Skeptical Science], August 26, 2011

"Reality reveals a left-wing bias." - nealjking [Skeptical Science], August 26, 2011

"We're all pretty much a bunch of Socialist Libertarians - See Chomsky" - gyrpo [Skeptical Science], August 26, 2011

"[A]t heart I am a fundamentalist extremist moderate" - Dikran Marsupial (Gavin Cawley) [Skeptical Science], August 27, 2011

"I'm still something of leftie, despite all those years in business." - Andy S [Skeptical Science], August 27, 2011

"The Criticisms of the Skeptics are right - SkSers are obviously all pinko/liberals" - Glenn Tamblyn [Skeptical Science], August 27, 2011


Ironically they were surprised by these results, apparently believing climate alarmism would be more politically "diverse".
"I recall previous discussion dealing with the SkS team page, and how the map and bios would be able to show that we are a diverse group of people that have different social and political views and backgrounds - ...apparently, ...most of us are in the same general quadrant." Andy S [Skeptical Science], August 27, 2011

References:
Chomsky's Economics (Ludwig von Mises Institute, January 6, 2003) Noam Chomsky: GOP Victory Amounts to 'Death Knell' for Humans (Newsmax, January 21, 2011)
From the Skeptical Science "leak": Interesting stuff about generating and marketing "The Consensus Project" (Tom Nelson, March 23, 2012)
Skeptical Science hacked, private user details publicly posted online (Skeptical Science, March 25, 2011)
The Political Compass

Update: The Political Compass quiz hijacked the term "libertarian". Milton Friedman who would be considered very close to a true libertarian falls to the right.



I prefer the World's Smallest Political Quiz.

3 comments:

ccscientist said...

They list themselves as more libertarian, but this is wrong. They constantly call on the state to force people to do things (carbon taxes, rationing, restricting) and would end free speech if they could. That is not libertarian.
Craig Loehle

Andrew said...

That political quiz labels "anarchist" libertarian. This is why they are calling themselves "socialist libertarians". For instance Milton Friedman would be considered very close to a true libertarian and he falls to the right. See this image.

Guilherme da Fonseca-Statter said...

Any person that has a minimal acquaintance with the ideas of Thomas Malthus and Marx/Engels will understand my assertion that «global warming alarmists» are basically preaching the gospel of Neomalthusianism... Marx talked about the «Humankind-Earth Metabolism» (refuting the «inevitable scarcity of resources» postulated by Malthus, and Engels (in «Dialectics of Nature») was fully aware of the Sun and the very long term inevitable cooling of the Solar system as whole. So, in a sense (and as noted by Dr. Moore), we may be averting (or postponing) a «big freeze» by pumping CO2 into the atmosphere...