Would you say that the “global warming” scare is the same as the Red Scare of the 1950s?
Question: Would you say that the “global warming” scare is the same as the Red Scare of the 1950s?
Do you agree that the scare about “global warming” that Al Gore caused would be equivalent to the Red Scare of the 1950s caused by McCarthy? We could call it the Global warming scare of the 2000s.
Answer:
Answer by TIMOTHY
Global warming is myth
No, this scare has a different goal.
In a sense that it is being used to push a political agenda, absolutely. I think the nature of the two “scares” is quite different though. The Red Scare was a direct accusation towards certain people that ruined careers where I think the Global Warming scare is more of a political argument based on a scientific hypothesis. The funny thing about the global warming issue is that there is a pretty simple approach that both sides should be following. One is to stop polluting as best as we can. Global warming or no, I don’t think anyone will sit here and say more pollution is better than less. That being said, who cares if there is a such thing as global warming or not. I personally don’t believe in it, but at the same time, I am probably more responsible than many of these alarmists in that I live within ten minutes of school and both my jobs and live in a neighborhood where I can get off my butt and walk.
No… if you’ve seen communism in action, you’d know that it is something to really be afraid of. (And judging from the perspective of the main stream media today, the commies of the 1950′s were successful at infiltrating the media in this country.)
well, 0 for 2 so far.
McCarthy didn’t cause the red scare.
Gore didn’t cause the global warming scare.
McCarthy used the cold war to attack people.
Gore pointed out what scientists were saying.
pretty hard to confuse the two, if you have a brain.
No. It has now come out that the “Red Scare” was based on reality.
Only fool’s would tax the sky and only idiot’s would pay for the sky.
Yes i agree that what he sayed.
Actually, McCarthyism (the ‘Red Scare’) is more akin to denialism than it is to a ‘”global warming” scare’.
Edit:
Let me take a moment to explain.
Deniers like attacking scientists and people who agree with the scientists and call them communists, conspirators, criminals and worse.
Doesn’t that sound a little familiar?
_
There are parallels.
With the advantage of hindsight we can say that McCathy was alarmist. American society was never at risk of being infiltrated by communists in the same way as North Korean and Vietnam were.
I guess the alarmists hate being compared with McCathy because most of them are Marxists.
No.
Political scare mongering is very different to the physical sciences.
Well global warming and communism are to different things. So in that aspect they are not the same. But McCarthy use lie to destroy the lives of people that he thought we Communist. Warmers use lies to destroy the careers of scientist that don’t follow the AGW agenda. So in that aspect there are similarities.
This is probably a rather silly point for a denier to raise given the nasty habit of many deniers to run around chanting about communists and global conspiracies everywhere, because that sounds a lot more like good’ol uncle Joe and the Red Scare of the 1950s, than anything that is being said about climate change.
No, not overall-although I think one could look at certain elements on both sides of the argument and see similarities in terms of the politicization of the issue. I believe that Al Gore didn’t create a ‘scare,’ but I do believe that he brought about a lot of public awareness of the potential problem and along with it did dramatize the topic of global warming in ways that people responded to with alarm. I think he has received a lot of well-deserved credit for the public education aspect of it, as well as some deserved criticism for over dramatization and some for talking the talk better than he walked the walk. I also think that his political position was one of the catalysts for making global warming a hot button political issue for the opposition view.
So there is both good and bad in what Al Gore did, but on that side of the equation little real similarity with the Red Scare of the 1950s. For one thing, there is a lot of research and evidence to support the theory of global warming and mankind’s role in it, rather than the purely idealogical battle of the McCarthy era-which actually had it’s origins in politics rather than becoming political.
I do see the idealogical war being waged politically now as more similar to the Red Scare of the 1950s from the point of view of the political right, but I don’t think Al Gore or the left ’caused’ that. I believe that concerns about socialism and communism seem similar to that past era and the scent of fear itself along with the accusations and attack politics is quite reminiscent of the Red Scare. But it hasn’t gotten as rabid as the 1950s or for as long-there have been sustained attacks on science and scientists, but not nearly as scurrilious as the ones waged on the entertainment industry or intellectuals back in those days, the blackballing and so on, and we seem to be calming down a little faster as people get more educated about what science is really saying at this point.
Very interesting question!
Red menace was about scaring people with propaganda of communist conspiracies to take over America, lead by senator McCarthy who made many claims but was never able to back them with facts was final censured by the Senate and was from then pretty much ignored by congress and the media.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy
Denial is about scaring people with propaganda about communist conspiracies to take over the world, lead by senator Inhofe who has made many claims but has never been able to back them with facts he has not been censured yet but while at first he did get media time he is now pretty much ignored by the media except fox following several years of ever increasing nonsense he released which was clearly contrary to the known facts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Inhofe
They really can’t be judged equally, because they have different natures. However, I do think that, if left uncured, the global warming scare will develop into a worldwide epidemic of sorts, something the red scare could never be. That’s why it’s important to take action NOW.
BTW, Gore didn’t CAUSE the scare, he just brought awareness to this issue.
NO, the same people that were behind McCarthyism in the 50s are the one that are saying that global warming is a socialist plot now. They use the same sort of tactics–they label the scientists as liberals, socialists, communists, etc. They were wrong in the 50s when they used those labels, and they are still wrong. The conservative leaders today that use name-calling do that so that they don’t have to think and make hard decisions.
EDIT: I’m not going to give Peter J’s scary answer a thumbs-down because he is such a perfect example of this and I want to people to know what they’re dealing with. He is unapologetic for McCarthyism–he still thinks that communist infiltration was real in the 50s.
No. First of all, Al Gore is a politician, he got it wrong. Global warming doesn’t exist. Global climate change does. And second, there is now scientific proof to back it up. Just the general public has now gotten to stupid to understand it. Snow in Miami isn’t enough, they want a huge hurricane in order to believe climate change.
No – this is about power and control leading to a one world government.