This is, of course, classic populism. Experts are discounted by populism. They are the elite. They are to be ridiculed and blamed. They are to be made the subjects of hate as the government seeks to divide society. But whatever happens their opinion must not be acted on, whatever the harm might be from ignoring them. In the land of populist equality, Jo down the pub has an opinion that is just as important, and if they say eat steak and guzzle diesel, well that’s just fine with this government and sod the consequences so long as they still vote Tory.
I think it time to say that the era of Enlightenment is most definitely under threat. Maybe it is drawing to a close. A very Dark Age is starting.
It usually thought to be an Enlightenment notion that the plebs and peasants don’t have to do what they’re damn well told, isn’t it?
Translation: “I am an expert and I am having a bit of a Dachau moment”.
On the other hand, we are going down the zero carbon rabbit hole because a group of people who don’t understand the working of the climate well enough to be entitled to an opinion voted for the Climate Change Act.
It’s not that, it’s that the word “expert” has been devalued so much that I’m an expert on interstellar sub-atomic fusion just because I know how to spell it.
A couple of year ago I looked through my university’s marking scheme. My 1980s “Pass” would today be a 2:1.
Troy Bramston wrote something similar in the Australian. Wicked ScoMo should exercise Fueherprinzip and compel the loathsome Nationals and the moronic plebs to bow down to net zero.
That seems to be the way he feels ‘Democracy’ should work.
Every expert has an agenda and the best interests of the people are unlikely to be part of it.
So elegantly put, Rhoda
The problem these days is that experts are invariably government employees. They like paying their mortgage, having food on the table and entertaiing their mistress, so their output is just propaganda.
He’s right in one way – we are entering a new dark age (not a thing I ever thought i’d say about spudollini) – a dark age where we don’t have enough electricity to power the lights and no decent heating for our homes, and most people having no access to cars. Welcome to the world Spudollini wants to create.
He of course forgets the important thing about experts (not that he is an expert) To paraphrase Michael Gove -“the british public are fed up with experts who keep on getting everything wrong” Theres’ no greater failures than Climate experts – whether it’s the new ice age , Islands drowning etc they’ve been consistently wrong probably because they falsify or cherry pick the data to prove their hypotheses. It’s fairly obvious without claiming a climate emergency (lol) most of these climate “scientists” (again lol) would be out of a job and sat outside Tescos begging for “any change Guv?”
He of course has embraced this alarmist nonsense because he sees an opportunity to grift away. If he really believed in his bullshit he’d be downsizing and getting rid of his central heating. Like all his pronouncements – collapse of the economy because of Brexit, 50000 deaths a day from Covid etc etc – it’s all horseshit. We can see how far the educational establishment has fallen by the fact that he’s been employed by a few universities to spread his bullshit. It’s about time this particular turd was flushed away from public life.
In the land of populist equality, Jo down the pub has an opinion that is just as important, and if they say eat steak and guzzle diesel, well that’s just fine with this government and sod the consequences so long as they still vote Tory.
If only it were true:
Now Boris could slap an eco tax on your MEAT
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10114157/Government-paper-says-ramping-price-high-carbon-foods-help-people-eat-sustainably.html
“A Government spokesman assured Britons the suggestions were part of a research paper rather than official policy.”
Your assurances don’t count for shit, you lying bastard scumbag.
I hope Jo down the pub doesn’t vote Tory anymore. I’m certainly not.
PJF – But if you don’t vote Conservative, Labour could get in!
You’ve got the wrong target, PJF. He’s a symptom not a cause. It’s the universities facilitate him prospering. Along with all the other so-called experts. The system’s irretrievably broken. Unfit for the purpose it’s supposed to exist. If it ever was fit. Time to get rid of it.
But if you don’t vote Conservative, Labour could get in!
OMG, then we’d have rampant eco-loonery, porous borders , high taxes and be prosecuting our veterans to death.
Hadn’t thought of that.
You’ve got the wrong target, PJF.
I think you’re talking to moqifen, bis.
PJF: Due to circumstances, I’ve eaten no meat for a week before today, all veg and some bread&marge, and it’s been jet thrust city in the toilet. I need some meat to get my digestion back on track.
That’s pretty-much everyone, innit?
Including Phil Jones and Mike Mann – but especially Al Gore and Greta Thunberg.
ramping the price of high-carbon food
What food isn’t “high-carbon”? That’s why it’s food because all life is carbon based.
Strange, I don’t remember much disdain for “experts” until they started telling us there are more than two genders and violent rioters can’t catch COVID.