It’s pretty obvious that deniers have no qualms about jumping from one subject to the next, with a pattern of behavior that remains remarkably stable despite the dramatically different academic fields they seek to colonize.
Yesterday we touched on three examples of this, but today and tomorrow we’re going deep on one particularly illustrative case, as Michael Shellenberger has announced he’s expanding the focus of his very-much-not-progressive Environmental Progress group from pro-nuclear anti-renewable advocacy to include work on housing and drug addiction.
Now, instead of just pretending to be a reformed environmentalist used as a tool by Republicans who published a climate denial book and promoted it to climate deniers, who also rails against the Pope, defends greed, and lies about renewables, he’s now playing addiction expert and housing and urban development planner calling for California to “Fund the Police.”
What qualifies Shellenberger as an expert on the complicated problems of drug addiction and the housing crisis? Well he has to see some drug dealers and unhoused people in California, and it really bothers him. There are also some parents of kids who have died from drug overdoses who he exploits to build his branding in this new field.
In a post on his substack Monday, Shellenberger claims “drug abuse, not climate change, is America’s biggest problem.” He compares the 308 people who died of natural disasters in 2020 to the nearly 90,000 who died from drug overdoses or poisonings in 2020, downplaying climate change and of course, by criticizing progressives, positioning himself as the Smart Man In The Middle who is the only one that Sees The Problem Clearly.
Point one is that fossil fuel pollution kills millions of people a year (and point one-point-five is that nobody is denying that drug overdoses are a serious problem). But beyond that, it’s interesting to see him take exactly the same approach he’s had on the environment, and apply it to drugs and housing. (Issues in which we’re not experts, but you don’t have to be to spot B.S.!)
On climate, Shellenberger’s approach has been to emphasize nuclear power and downplay renewables as a way to shore up conservative support by criticizing the left. By arguing for solutions that don’t actually change the status quo, instead allowing major polluters to keep polluting while blaming the left for anything and everything, he can claim to be the Sensible Voice that isn’t embracing the right’s fossil fuel fealty, or the left’s radicalism.
Similarly, his supposed “answer” to the problems of people without housing and addicted to drugs, largely because they lack access to mental health care, is one that deftly avoids laying any blame on powerful actors like drug companies who make and sell dangerous opioids, or the political party that’s fought making health care more accessible and gutted mental health funding for decades.
To understand Shellenberger’s triangulation, you have to understand his messaging strategy: The left is always wrong, and the right is right but too blunt about it, so you soften that just a tad with a few euphemisms to make regressive policies sound moderate.
You can’t wholly adopt the left’s language though, so for example he repeatedly uses the dehumanizing language of calling people “homeless” as though it’s a permanent state and not something that acknowledges that they’re still people and not living stepping stones on Shellenberger’s path to political relevance, or on his way to the grocery store.
Shellenberger’s substack post announces both that he’s got a book deal from Harper Collins to write about this, and that his organization, Environmental Progress, is launching a “California Peace Campaign.”
This is getting long though, so tune in tomorrow for an analysis of the plan. But if you can’t wait, here’s a hint: his plan seems a lot like the failed War on Drugs. The main difference? “Peace” is in the name!
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