Reddit bans intelligent skepticism about climate change; all skeptical comments instantly banned

Friday, January 10, 2014 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Reddit, climate change, skeptics

(NaturalNews) A favorite tactic of the political left is neutralizing or silencing critics rather than engaging them in honest debate on a level playing field. Nowhere is this done as often as in the issue of climate change/global warming; the true believers simply have no interest in the fair exchange of ideas and, as such, routinely resort to tactics used by police states everywhere.

Case in point: A content editor in the science forum at the media sharing site Reddit wrote in late December that the site has simply banned climate-change skeptics, period, then asked why other news sites and outlets haven't done the same thing.

"About a year ago, we moderators became increasingly stringent with deniers," Reddit content editor Nathan Allen wrote in grist. "When a potentially controversial submission was posted, a warning would be issued stating the rules for comments (most importantly that your comment isn't a conspiracy theory) and advising that further violations of the rules could result in the commenter being banned from the forum."

Allen went on to explain that climate change had become a heated - no pun intended - topic among commentators in Reddit's science forum, "/r/science," which he described as "a window into the Ivory Tower" for "non-scientists" to connect with experts, such as himself.

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, would have loved Mr. Allen. Then again, there is probably a position for him in Castro's Cuba or, better yet, North Korea.

What you can't debate, ban

The climate-change hoaxers' tactics are always the same - smear, discredit, lie and then ban opponents.

For example, climate change hoaxers regularly accuse skeptics of being co-opted by "big oil," though admittedly, skeptics accuse the hoaxers of being beholden to "big green."

And yet, despite the two-sided provocations, as well as Reddit's rep as a site "passionately dedicated to free speech," Allen, a self-described "PhD chemist" decided on his own to oust the skeptics.

"After some time interacting with the regular denier posters, it became clear that they could not or would not improve their demeanor," Allen said. "As a scientist myself, it became clear to me that the contrarians were not capable of providing the science to support their 'skepticism' on climate change."

The result has been nothing less than chilling for the same "free speech" which Reddit professes to cherish: Now, about a half-dozen other content editors are practicing "proactive moderation" on the science forum's 4 million-odd subscribers.

"As moderators responsible for what millions of people see, we felt that to allow a handful of commenters to so purposefully mislead our audience was simply immoral," Allen said of the audience he previously described as "mainly academic."

Not even a hint of irony there, huh?

Changing the language

Allen later went on to insult the very same audience, labeling them "internet trolls looking to have a little fun upsetting people. Such users are practically the norm on Reddit."

Allen then seemed surprised that removing an entire faction of commenters "resulted in a change in the culture within the comments. Where once there were personal insults and bitter accusations, there is now discussion of the relevant aspects of the research."

"While we won't claim /r/science is perfect, users seem happy with the changes made," Allen said.

Well, no doubt some users are delighted with the changes - like all of the other little climate change Nazis who would rather ban and block those with alternative points of view than engage them honestly.

Perhaps one of the most intellectually dishonest and disproven claims of all by the climate change hoaxers is that their point of view is "settled science." Hardly. If anything, the science disproving the hoaxers' positions is settled, as noted by climate hoaxer site ClimateDepot.com, which tracks the bogus global warming/climate change "data."

Finally, you will note that, when science and factual data did not substantiate the climate hoaxers' claims of "global warming," the language was altered; suddenly, it was "climate change," not "global warming" - and after all, who can argue with the fact that, over the centuries, climate has indeed... changed?

Sources:

http://dailycaller.com

http://landing.newsinc.com

http://www.climatedepot.com

http://science.naturalnews.com