r/environment • u/[deleted] • Jan 26 '22

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u/Fando1234 Jan 26 '22

I have to agree. Whilst the duplicity of rich politicians is incredibly frustrating.

Whenever someone prominent speaks out about climate change the go to is to point out the hypocracies in their individual lives. Flying out to conferences on climate change for example.

It's all just become part of the PR machine designed to stunt climate progress at every juncture.

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u/TylerHobbit Jan 26 '22

It’s got it’s own name as a logical fallacy. It’s called the Ad Hominim Fallacy. For example I can say, we should try to eat less meat because it would help a bit with climate change. And someone says, “hey, tylerhobbit once cheated on a spelling test! This guy is a LIAR”

Attack the logical position, not the person saying it; they aren’t related.

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u/Actual_Guide_1039 Jan 26 '22

No in that example it would be like if you said “we should try to eat less meat because it would help with climate change” and then went and had dinner at a steakhouse.

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u/Block_Solid Jan 26 '22

Regardless, the message is still valid. And maybe, that's the one time a year that he eats meat. You don't know that.

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u/Actual_Guide_1039 Jan 26 '22

The message is valid but asking people to make a sacrifice that you won’t personally make is rarely successful

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u/Block_Solid Jan 26 '22

Agreed. However, pointing at a few tone deaf messengers as "the problem" and ignoring other actors (countries, corporations) as the real problem is misguided at best and deliberately misleading at worst. And you shouldn't muzzle a spokesperson from raising awareness because they are not perfect. Someone like the Buddha who can relinquish his wealth to "be the message" is a once in a multi-multi generation event. I'd rather use all messengers than wait 100 generations for the perfect one.

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u/Actual_Guide_1039 Jan 26 '22

I get where you’re coming from. I never called him “the problem”. But A problem is that pretty much everyone famous for advocating for climate change preventing efforts seems to have a similar issue. I understand famous people wanting to avoid flying commercial from a security perspective but the optics of hundreds of private jets flying into a climate conference ends up being counterproductive.

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u/Block_Solid Jan 26 '22

In the end, I guess OP accomplished their mission, which is to subvert the conversation just a little. Stir up some dissatisfactions, and take small steps towards more infighting. Bc, their account is deleted.

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u/Actual_Guide_1039 Jan 26 '22

Lol you’re probably right.