Conservatives in many democracies, including the US and the UK, have given up on conservative values in favour of a fantasy world of invention and denialism. Where anything that is inconvenient is simply wished away. Can’t help thinking it all starts with climate change.

Climate change is a unique threat to conservatives because it blows apart a worldview built on belief in the freedom of private property and capital, and simultaneously commitment to preserving the social order. In a climate catastrophe these two can no longer be reconciled

Starting with American conservative plutocrats like the Koch brothers, who have huge stakes in fossil fuels, the project becomes denial. They sponsor whole political movements built on lying, whole generations of political activists skilled in lying, deflecting and distorting.

Once you have built this infrastructure, why stop at lying about climate change? You can lie about anything that doesn’t fit the narrative. The economy, the characteristics of different social or ethnic groups, the nature of disease. Election results.

This is more successful than it ought to be because of the tentative response of more reality-based politicians. In particular their inability to stick with a counter-narrative of their own with sufficient determination. For example, why not call out what the GOP is doing now?

There is an epistemological war going on. It’s time we tried fighting back. Aggressively.