But not as cold as the brain freeze of global warming denialism.
The Incestuous Amplification Feedback Loop of the right-wing media is in full gear to cry “Hoax!” on Global Warming science because it’s very, very cold in the United States right now. Of course, they don’t need a particular reason to cry hoax, but they do become all the more shrill when they are trying to glom onto something they perceive as useful to their misinformation agenda.
The right-wing noise machine is ever ready to exploit a complex issue to advance their agenda, no matter how important it may be that the public have reliable information on that issue.
Limbaugh told his listeners that the term “polar vortex” is a sinister creation of “the media.” He was immediately debunked and called out by senior Accuweather meteorologist Bernie Rayno, who said the term has long been in use and who also said “now, any time anybody tries to have a debate, it turns into being politicized,” he said. “Whenever you politicize something, you contaminate it.”
Many other sources of right-wing media static like Drudge and Malkin have been crying the same denier line of nonsense and, of course, Senator Inhofe reliably amplifies this crazy talk [listen here] while sounding like an addled, partisan weatherman nattering on about every time it snowed on Al Gore in the last decade.
Here’s a fun pop quiz: How much of the Earth’s surface does the United States represent?
That would be 2%. How much time is the right-wing media devoting to the unusually warm temps in Scandinavia or the dangerous, ongoing heatwave afflicting Australia?
No, no, don’t look there! Look out your window, it’s snowing and your pipes froze last night. There must be no such thing as Global Warming! Or other countries either I guess.
Let’s say your bath tub represents 2% of your house and the tub is filled with ice. Meanwhile the rest of the house is on fire and the fire is spreading fast. Should you not call the fire department because the temp in the tub at that moment is freezing?
There’s a reason why it’s called GLOBAL warming and not your hometown warming.
But the propaganda of the right-wing media machine is all about getting people to narrow their vision, narrow their understanding and narrow their minds.