Marginalising those who disagree

Bomber at Tumeke gives us an excellent example of the tendency by some to not address arguments you disagree with, but try to paint your opponents as having impure motives, or being brought off.

The Climate Science Coalition took issue with NIWA blaming the Northland floods on global warming (an unprovable assertion).

Now Bomber in a wonderful conspiracy theory discovers that two of the twenty or so members of the CSC have both written the odd article for Tech Central Science Foundation (which has over 100 writers), and that four years ago Exxon-Mobil gave US$151,430 to TCS.

Now he demands the NZ Herald publishes this damning revelation. The very clear implication is that the CSC is in the payroll of Exxon-Mobil and you can’t trust anything they say because they are being paid to say whatever their corporate masters demand they say.

So because 10% of the members of the CSC, may have written articles which they may or not have been paid for by TCS, and because TCS has had a donation by Exxon-Mobil that may be less than 1% of their budget over the last four years, this means the CSC is in the pay of Exxon-Mobil.

Or one could just conclude that people with honestly held views sceptical of the AGM theories, write for organisations that share those views.

This is not to say the the CSC is right or wrong with the scepticism. But trying to close down debate by alleging that scepticism is due to funding from big oil, is not the way to go.

By that rationale we should not listen to a single word Labour says on employment law, because they are part funded by the Unions.