A Time to Think
July 22nd, 2008 by eraserbartHoaxes have always been around. People have fallen for them en masse for
centuries. In the recent past, we had an Ice Age scare in the 70’s, then we
proceeded to an overpopulation scare, then there was Y2K and now Global
Warming. Remember the Hole In The Ozone Layer? Has that been fixed or did it
just go away or was it a natural, reoccurring phenomenon? What is it about
hoaxes that overwhelm great numbers of people with panic and sends them running
off to spend money and do the bidding of the huckster?
The first element of a hoax is that it evokes emotions such as fear, greed,
sympathy, guilt, etc. You are going to die. You can make some money. Someone
will die. You are the cause of this travesty.
With the Make-A-Wish Foundation scam, the child is dying from cancer and the
Make-A-Wish Foundation will donate 7 cents every time the email is forwarded.
The emotions here are sympathy and guilt.
The Global Warming enthusiasts are trying to evoke fear and guilt. The fear
is that we could die in a catastrophic weather event. And we could. Tornadoes
and hurricanes and lightning have killed many people and there’s not much we
can do to prevent them or protect ourselves from them. Guilt is also induced.
We drive cars which will be the cause of world-wide suffering. It will be our
fault.
Emotions overwhelm rational analysis. With the Make-A-Wish hoax, who wouldn’t
feel a twinge of sympathy for a dying child? Guilt might also play a role since
if we don’t forward the email the child will do without. The questions of how
long does this child have to live and when was this email sent do not occur.
This type of email has been circulating for almost two decades. The Make-A-Wish
foundation still receives hundreds of inquiries a day and has a website set up just
for this hoax. The victim of the hoax thinks that it could be possible to track
emails and the child is dying right now and it won’t cost them anything to
forward an email, so with just the click of a button they forward the email.
With the Global Warming hoax, the science is beyond most people’s
understanding or wherewithal. This results in the victim of the hoax feeling
confused and ashamed. He will not strive to understand the science. The victim
of the hoax benefits from the wealth produced by an industrial society. This
produces guilt. Feeling guilty drives the victim to comply with the alarmist’s
demands. And if the victim of the hoax cannot give up his car or cannot afford
to replace all his incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs or balks at
the extra tax, this will generate more guilt. The victim will not consider if
there are other solutions. Let me state this again: emotions overwhelm rational
analysis.
The second element is to baffle them with babble. The mind can only hold so
many elements in conscious awareness at one time. With Global Warming, there
are seven elements which are about the limit of most people. The logical
progression is that the cars produce CO2 and this thickens the atmosphere which
increases the temperature which causes the land-based glaciers to melt which
fills the oceans which rise up and flood the land. Can you repeat that? I
needed to practice it. With the lottery ticket scam, there are six elements.
The "lottery ticket winner" is illegally in the country so he can’t
cash the check because he has no social security number so he will gladly split
the proceeds with you if you cash the ticket for him.
The third element is immediacy; action must be taken now. With the Car
Warranty Expiration scam, your car warranty is expiring now. You will have to
pay for the repairs yourself, unless you take advantage of this opportunity
now. With the Global Warming hoax, we must act now to prevent future disasters
because when the disasters come about it will be too late. Now removes the time
to think.
How to avoid a hoax? First, if you hear or read a story that stirs your
emotions, take the time to think. The gossip with the latest titillating
scandal is a good example. Listeners get a vicarious thrill from another’s
foibles. If you are frightened or guilty, someone with a plan eliminates the
necessity to think of a solution.
Second, if the "facts" are overwhelming you, take the time to go
over each one. With the Global Warming hoax, the CO2 is produced by cars (and I
may add, breathing). If you recall your grammar school science, trees and
plants use CO2 to produce oxygen. Notice how none of the solutions you read
about involve planting more trees.
If the CO2 is thickening the atmosphere, wouldn’t that prevent the sun’s
rays from warming the earth? Wouldn’t we be causing an Ice Age? And speaking of
Ice Ages, hasn’t the earth always been in flux between Ice Ages and Tropical
Ages since long before man entered the picture?
What is the earth’s average temperature? You would be hard-pressed to find
that published anywhere, but you do hear that it is going up. The temperature
is 58 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s gone up a little over one degree in the past 100
years. That means that 100 years ago the temperature was around 56 degrees
Fahrenheit. Doesn’t that mean that the glaciers were melting then? How do we
know that this 1 degree change is unusual? What should the average temperature
have been? Is it supposed to stay the same over the centuries? Was it supposed
to go down? Or was it supposed to go up by a smaller amount?
Have you ever wondered why only the past 100 years is specified? Could it be
that we’ve only been recording temperature for the past 100 years?
Did you notice that we only have to worry about land-based glaciers melting?
Here’s the science. Water expands when frozen. Those who live in the north know
that they can’t put water in their car radiator during winter. When the water
freezes, it expands and cracks the radiator. So when ice melts, it decreases in
volume. The global warming alarmists can’t say that when glaciers melt it
increases the volume of the oceans because ice decreases in volume when it
melts. So they specifically state that land-based glaciers are increasing the
volume of the ocean, because land-based glaciers melt and flow into the oceans.
Now if land-based glaciers are melting and expanding the volume of the
ocean, then ocean-based glaciers are melting and decreasing the volume of the
oceans. One would think that the two might cancel each other out. Calculating the
volume of the ocean-based glaciers that melted and subtracting that from the
current volume of the ocean and then adding the volume of the land-based
glaciers that melted minus the diminished volume would be an enormous task and
subject to error.
Third, the only time to act immediately without thinking is in an emergency.
And then you can only hope that you have learned enough for your subconscious
to throw up the right solution or that you will be lucky. Everything else
requires thought. Take the time to consider the things that you are being told,
find out the things that you are not being told and recall the things that you
know and fit it all together.
Hoaxes will always be around. One needs to be aware when one’s emotions are
being manipulated. One needs to be honest enough to say, I don’t understand.
Let’s go over the details again. If someone is demanding action now and it is
not an emergency, take the time to think.
