A partial victory! An appeals court gave a go-ahead to climate scientist Michael Mann’s defamation case against his poisonous critics—it will go to trial by jury. The defendants are the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Mark Steyn writing for the National Review.
Check out: Appeals Court Favors Mann
Speaking of the National Review, I picked up a copy while in the library yesterday in the interest of listening to The Other Side (i.e., the not-so- parallel universe where pompous conservatives ply their lofty intellectual trade.).
Believe me, I tried to read with an open mind—I really did. But I didn’t get very far. I think what most got to me was the smug, dismissive tone (in two different articles and an editorial)—the casting of liberals as near-hysterical alarmists who every day go into a panic about a new patch of the Sky Falling.
Do we liberals do that (I mean, do we belittle the opposition with such self-satisfaction, not that we go into panics)? Maybe I do, although I like to think I try to address those folks on a level playing field. Being sarcastic, sure, but without sounding like I view them as rodents scuttling about in the basement. For example, I don’t speak of climate change deniers as ignoramuses. Is my reference to a parallel universe an unfair, belittling metaphor?
Something to think about when supposing oneself objective.