I'm just going to pass this along...

Interesting post over on Deltoid:

A Taxonomy of Delusion

It actually echoes something by John Quiggin, linked in the post. I presented Deltoid because of what it says about the lovely liar Patrick Michaels.

I like these two parts of Quiggin's piece:

"Second, there are rightwingers in the US and other countries (including Australia) where the political right derives most of its thinking from the US. The basic motivation is the same, except the animus is directed towards liberals (in the US sense) and leftists in general, rather than environmentalists specifically. Members of this group are notable for an obsessive focus on Al Gore: some seem to think that an An Inconvenient Truth and not, say, the thousands of pages of IPCC reports, is the primary document in the case for action on climate change." [Yup, I know the type. That's why reading climate change posts on FreeRepublic provides such amusement and merriment and why there's no point in ever trying to engage the idiots over there.]

and this part:

"Fourth, there are irresponsible contrarians, exemplified by Richard Lindzen. The typical contrarian is skilled enough in argument to maintain a weak position, and successful enough in their own field (often tangentially relevant to the issue at hand) to have an inflated view of their own intelligence. And they prefer confuting the conventional wisdom (to their own satisfaction) to giving serious consideration to the views of experts on subjects where there own knowledge is limited."

Most recently, this group added to its ranks astronauts Harrison Schmitt (also a geochemist and a Senator, which astounds me) and Walt Cunningham. I'd really, really, really, really, really... let me say again... REALLY like to get behind closed doors with Jack and figure out how a Harvard-trained geochemist (a Ph.D. in geology!!!) could be such a dunderhead. I mean, he's reputed to have said this:

"Schmitt said historical documents indicate average temperatures have risen by 1 degree per century since around 1400 A.D., and the rise in carbon dioxide is because of the temperature rise."

There's about nine different ways to show why that's wrong, and Schmitt probably learned enough in college to understand at least four of them. I mean, believe it or not, Schmitt took classes from Robert M. Garrels. Good lord!

Yeah, I posted this in a comment on The Loom. But it bears repeating. And pondering. I don't know if I'll ever meet up with Schmitty, but I sure do wish I'd get the chance. I'd hate to think he's just, essentially, a Tribalist.