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You are out of your mind. Conservatives deny climate change now, in large part (I think) because progressives care so much about it. The former is empirically undeniable.
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You credit progressives with being much more important than they are. The people who deny climate change do it for a variety of reasons. Some for the reason you cite. Some because they work in fossil fuel industry. Some just because they're suspicious of everything.
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As the problem has gotten worse, conservatives increasingly deny that it exists and oppose doing anything about it. The current Administration is rolling back air quality protections that industry doesn't want rolled back, just to say "f*ck you" to Obama. That is quintessentially conservative.
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I think they're doing it because they're in the pocket of the fossil fuel industries, and because one of Bannon's planks was dismantling of the regulatory state. This has to do with Libertarian politics more than it does with grievance.
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I guess we are using the word "conservatives" in different ways. You're talking about Republicans. I'm talking about conservatives.
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I don't know what definition you are using for conservatives, but it seems to be "populist." Why not just use "right wing populist"?
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No, I was trying to describe polarization.
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No you weren't. You were arguing one side is at fault for everything. You know that's not accurate. You understand the tango that brought us here. It's complex, and annoying to hear people search for something or someone to blame when confronted with a complex problem.
Is the GOP worse on climate than the Democrats? Yes. But Republicans are embracing the urgent need to do something about climate change. The polls reflect that shift. They can be and are being brought around to it. And many have been there all along. More efforts toward expanding this emerging bipartisan consensus are useful. You're carping about how one party historically fucked it up is just, well, carping.