Skip to main content

Bad Memes: This meme makes me sad.




This meme makes me sad. It takes a cheap shot at both climate scientists and meteorologists. I call it out here because of the mockery. It bypasses rational thought. It discounts science without having to engage in any reasoning. The laugh-till-you-cry faces emphasize the attitude you should have toward 'those people'.


It’s important to note the impact these memes have on social interactions. They discourage actual discussion on these topics. Someone posts a meme that mocks a person, position, or party, and any friend who disagrees knows what topics to avoid.


I'm offended by a cheap shot at meteorologists.


Meteorologists have an immensely difficult job, and the predictions they make about events like hurricanes are amazing by any measure. Fifty years ago, people found out about hurricanes when the hurricane showed up. Now we have days to prepare, to board up windows, and to evacuate entire areas. Meteorologists save lives.


Have you ever tracked a hurricane projection in the news over the course of a week? I have, and I find the predictions impressive.


I have an analogy for weather prediction: If someone fills your hands with sand and makes you walk around your house, it’s easy to predict that much of the sand will fall from your hands (There is, let's say, a 90% chance of sandfall). It’s really difficult, however, to predict how much will fall on any one square inch of your floor. That’s what people seem to expect meteorologists to do, and it’s just not reasonable.


Likewise, climatologists have done quite well at predicting climate change and its impacts. They have not said that in ten years we will die from global warming. Someone might be confusing climate science with the movies.


Climate scientists have said that glaciers will melt, sea levels will rise, extremes will be more common, and coral reefs will die off. How accurate do you think that's been? They've said that eventually, global food supplies will be threatened. Hopefully their accuracy stops there.


I don’t mind if you chuckle at the occasional meme. I certainly do. But I hope your chuckle is followed up with a little objective review. Is this respectful? Is this polite? Is it a fair representation of what other reasonable people think?


Memes can be funny. Memes can be cute. But they can also be mean-spirited and misleading. Be careful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Real Estate in America

We sold our house this summer and bought a new home. The experience has led me to reflect on homes and home-buying in America. As in any industry, there are good and bad incentives at work in real estate. A home seller would like to get the highest price for their house and sell it in a reasonable period of time. The industry operates on a commission system so that the agent seeks to sell the house at a higher price. This incentive works, but only to a point. Consider the impact of $5000 on the seller vs. the agent. Six percent of $5000 is $300. After the realty company and purchasing agent take their cut, the agent isn't left with much. A $5000 difference in the price of the house means little to the agent, but a lot to the home owner. Does an agent become successful by getting the highest price or by turning over lots of houses? The answer is obvious. An agent's ideal world is not one where people get exactly the right price for their homes, it is a world where everyone is wi...
2 comments
Read more

New Yorker letter to editor

(In The New Yorker, 2/4/08, p5) Jeanne Guillemin, a senior fellor in MIT's Security Studies Program, wrote an excellent letter to the editor regarding how Americans talk about casualties. I'm unable to find a link to a full-text example, but here is an excerpt: "In wars since 1945, American combat mortality figures have sharply declined, while the exclusivity of the American claim on memorialization has intensified, as if U.S. soldiers were the only casualties in Korea or Vietnam or, more recently, Iraq, and the deaths of many thousands of civilians killed in those distant conflicts merited no acknowledgment and carried no meaning. Whose deaths matter and whose do not always tells a great deal about American politics and culture."
1 comment
Read more

Voter Fraud

There's been a lot of talk in Wisconsin about voter fraud and what needs to be done to prevent voter fraud. I'd like to address what the real voter fraud is and what it is not. There has been no substantial voter fraud proven in this state in recent memory. No statistically significant voter fraud has even been alleged. The accusations that are tossed around have more to do with someone standing too close to a polling station when they hand out literature than with someone actually voting in an illigitimate way. One couple in a recent election voted by absentee, then again at the polling station. They were caught easily. The system worked. The fraud that is used to justify so-called voter reform is not a problem. It's not just fear of getting caught that deters voter fraud today. In modern America, voter fraud is by-and-large a very inefficient way to influence an election. You have to find a group of people who are willing to commit crimes, you have to subvert the system a...
1 comment
Read more