Gov. Jerry Brown Preaches Brainwashing on Climate Change at Vatican Conference
Jerry Brown’s brainwashing you. This is no “Russiagate” style exaggeration, Governor Jerry Brown of California has suggested that the public needs “brainwashing” on climate change. Governor Brown must not have been living on planet Earth for the past few years, because brainwashing is precisely how climate change—the man-made variety, that is—has spread.
Brown and his fellow catastrophist and CEO of meteorological doom and gloom, Al Gore, forgot to consider the possibility that some humans are still capable of independent thought. Addressing a literally holier than thou audience at a Vatican “climate conference,” Brown pontificated that, “brainwashing is needed to get people to accept the idea of man-made climate change.” (Source: “At Vatican conference, California governor says ‘brainwashing’ needed on climate change,” LifeSiteNews, November 15, 2017.)
The Vatican: A Fine Place to Pontificate Brainwashing and Dogma
At first glance, Governor Brown may not have realized what he said and the venue in which he said it. The Vatican is the very institution that burned the philosopher Giordano Bruno alive on February 17, 1600 for daring to challenge Church dogma. The intent was to silence him forever, but 400 years later, he has become the very symbol of freedom of speech and liberty—the antithesis of “brainwashing.” If Jerry Brown’s brainwashing plot would ever gain support, the next Giordano Bruno might well be someone who dares challenge the theory of man-made climate change before its church: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Come to think of it, I share both a last name and the city of birth with Giordano Bruno. Hmmm. . .
The church has yet to rehabilitate Bruno, who defended Galileo, the very same person who challenged the geocentric conception of the universe favored by the Vatican. Galileo did not use brainwashing to persuade the world he was right; he devised what we now call the “scientific method.” The principle is to gather knowledge through experimentation. Climate change has no experimentation; it’s a theory, the catastrophic effects of which derive out of computer models.
These models try to guess what the climate will be like in 100 years, based solely on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and estimates of the amount by which it will increase. The theory that places carbon dioxide as the main cause of man-made climate change, rather than the more obvious and logical population growth, conveniently ignores a basic notion.
Send in the Clowns
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a fraction of a fraction of all the other gases that make it up. It’s best the reader sit down for this shocker: the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is, drumroll. . .0.041%. That’s what Jerry Brown’s brainwashing wants us to worry about. It makes me think of that famous Stephen Sondheim song, which Frank Sinatra promptly covered to great effect, “Send in the Clowns:” “And where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns. Don’t bother. They’re here.”
Certainly, one of the clowns was “there.” To make his most scientific point, while mocking Trump’s inaction on climate change, Brown did not discuss scientific points to support the idea of man-made climate change. He didn’t even bother preaching to the choir from the Al Gore songbook. Rather, he discussed climate change from his own perspective as a Catholic and from his experience in a Jesuit seminary. He regretted that no matter how much the seminary encouraged meditation, self-discipline, and mortification, he failed to shed all his bad habits. (Source: Ibid.)
The fact that Brown has gone against Church dogma—perhaps to his credit—in his tenure as Governor of California suggests that he’s rather bad at being brainwashed. In other words, the seminary and the church could not break Jerry Brown, the individual. That suggests that the man has intelligence and even integrity. But this also makes it all the harder to understand why he has not carried his experience to evaluating the veracity of the claims from climate catastrophists.
Jerry Brown Is Not a Scientist
Like most of us, Governor Brown is not a scientist, let alone a climatologist. However, unlike some of us, he has failed to perform due diligence on the “97% of scientists” consensus swindle. It is this statement that, more than any other, climate alarmists whip out like Wyatt Earp did with his gun at the O.K. Corral when they realize they’re losing to logic. The “97% of scientists” comes straight out of TV commercial school: “eight out of 10 dentists recommend Cavitygate toothpaste.” It’s pure propaganda. And what is the point of propaganda if not to brainwash?
The fact is that “climate science,” and much of environmentalism with it, is more propaganda than fact. Therefore, more than persuasion and logic, its methods must rely on the very brainwashing techniques that cults use. It would not be an hyperbole to describe the fixation that “climate change,” a perfectly natural phenomenon, has taken on religious status. Not only do people seem unable to think logically about it, but they seem to revel in believing it.
The theory of a man-made catastrophe has apocalyptic dimensions that links it to “end of the world” prophecies that exist in many religions. The fact that climate change identifies a culprit (CO2) plays to our heroic David versus Goliath side; it gives as an enemy and a method to defeat it. It also fuels the sense of mission around this goal. People start to enjoy the challenge, much like they start to enjoy intense workouts, jogs, or bicycle rides. In other words, climate change fears make many people feel good about themselves in a world, where so little else does. Governor Jerry Brown doesn’t have to worry about brainwashing. It’s already happening, and successfully.