A distorted world requires skepticism

what you might care about right now might simply be programming by powerful forces

Dear child,

You're growing fast, and I don't want you to be an ignorant pawn on the world stage. Sometimes, there's more going on than is obvious, so I urge caution when you feel you should think or act with the crowds. I suggest a little skepticism.

For example, today, you are confronted regularly with climate doom and gloom, with friends, teachers, professors, politicians, or rich and famous people telling you the science is settled and you must believe and act in a certain way.

Maybe they are correct, maybe not, though. That's not the point of this letter. Instead, I want you to learn to think, ask questions, and form your opinions based on sound logic and information. For example, have you ever seen one of these outspoken climate people go to China to complain about how much coal they burn? China burns more coal than anybody, but I haven't seen any protests from the usual suspects. I wonder why.

So many of these doomers enjoy flying around the world in private planes to go to summits and speaking appearances where they wring their hands and, with concern on their face, tell us the oceans are rising, polar bears are dying, etc. And they buy beautiful beachfront homes. Maybe they'll be underwater soon. Maybe not.

I'm old, you know that. So old I remember things from the '90s because I was there! Things like how, in the USA, there was a huge push to "educate" the masses that freon, a patented refrigerant chemical, was terrible for the environment, would destroy the ozone layer of the atmosphere and should be banned.

Maybe Freon was that terrible. But I also find it curious that it was banned right as it was coming off patent protection, the owner of the freon patent had another patented refrigerant ready to go, and the president of the United States, through executive order, allowed almost a billion extra pounds of freon to be manufactured just as it was banned…but how was another billion pounds a good idea if it was so bad?

I can also remember many environmental groups protesting oil drilling in the USA. This was before all the concern about fossil fuels generating carbon dioxide and warming the earth. At least before the science was settled, as you are aware. But it turned out that Saudi Arabia was funding many of these environmental groups. Now, why would Saudi Arabia care about oil drilling in the USA? But they care enough to send money here to get people to protest and lobby for restrictions.

Examples like these, and many more, have made me skeptical of whatever the latest, popular idea, "you need to care about this!" proclamations. I hope you will be, too. After all, you are old enough to remember this: "Two weeks to flatten the curve."

What are you skeptical about these days?

Love,

Dad