THREAD

For years, when I give talks, I've been asking audiences if there's anyone there who thinks climate change is a hoax, but supports Obamacare.

There should be zero correlation between these — one is a scientific judgment, while the other is a policy judgment.

Yet, I find that there is basically no one who holds both of these views. There certainly are people who hold other combinations.

I don't have as much evidence about mask wearing, but I find a similar result there: there is basically no one who supports mask wearing (to reduce spread of COVID) but thinks climate change is hoax.

The very strong correlation between views of climate science and unrelated policy tells us is that climate denial is not based on science, but is a way to deniers support their preferred policy.

Of course, everyone who deals with climate denial already knows this.

In some cases, deniers explicitly acknowledge this https://twitter.com/AndrewDessler/status/1095029321666826248?s=20

This was motivated by the nice article today by @emorwee ( https://heated.world/p/lawmakers-who-denied-bidens-victory) that pointed out another place where this is true: election deniers.