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Comment by yorwba | Hacker News Reader

The article voices a bunch of valid criticism, but I really wish it could have done so without turning environmental damage into a contest and using unsubstantiated superlatives. Is it not enough to criticize someone without claiming that they are the worst? The jab at Trump felt misplaced as well.

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>> but I really wish it could have done so without turning environmental damage into a contest and using unsubstantiated superlatives.

Are you familiar with "The Guardian"?

Everything is the worst, or (rarely) the best there. It's not exactly a tabloid, but it is becoming more and more of a sensationalist leftie/left-liberal opinion vehicle.

They've spent a lot of time on the "Merkel is a saint" angle lately, because of her actions on refugee flows a couple of years ago, and because they have considered her most righteous when held up against the hubris and failings of the UK (most particularly concerning "Brexit").

So now it's time to demonise her...

The article was very clear that she not simply open to criticism but has done more, by her industry-driven policy decisions, to damage the environment than any other person. Literally, the worst.

It's not a secondary claim; it's the entire premise of the article.

Very much George Monbiot's style, I find it grating sometimes how hyper-critical he is of a lot of climate change endeavours. But I suppose it's better to have that voice there than not.

I agree. And if they do make it a contest, providing numbers for comparison would be really helpful. Like, her impact compared to that of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.

However the jab at Trump shows what is wrong with the political level of environmental activity.

there is so much more implied by the Paris Accords that it actually will do and heaps of FUD to convince you it must be done or we are all doomed with a good dose of of thanks thrown to the politicians who so boldly stood up for it.

So the sycophants in press, special interest groups, and science, were all dutifully marched out to hark the message loud enough to distract from everything that actually was still going on.

Politics is the art of distraction and division as practiced by modern politicians who are adept at manipulating public opinion usually with the full cooperation of a sympathetic press.

I don't know why you are getting down voted for this - can only think people don't like having their cosy bubble disturbed.

I don't know, maybe because all he did was spout obnoxious platitudes with zero actual content, but whatever bro, stay woke.

This sort of personal+ideological attack will get your account banned on HN, regardless of how wrong someone else is, so would you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not post like this again?

I feel like jabs at conservative politics are the norm now with a lot of journalism. A few weeks back an article [1] I read, from reddit, started with:

    …the dastardly Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor seem to be a great gift to the Alt-Right’s xenophobic nationalists.

Interesting article, but unnecessary (and daresay incorrect?) jab at the start.

[1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-american-who-buried-a-kamik...

If you're going to quote an article, you shouldn't leave out context that changes the meaning of the sentence you're quoting -

  "The 75th anniversary commemorations of the dastardly Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
   seem to be a great gift to the Alt-Right’s xenophobic nationalists."

It's the 75th anniversary commemorations that seem to be a gift - not the attack itself (obviously).

Ah yes you're quite right! Apologies to all. I'd misread that, although I think my point still stands: I'd like to read about the story and not hear about politics in a foreign (to me) country.

Indeed. It was exactly the other way around, as many nationalists (including the KKK) did not want to get into the war and held a lot of sway right up until Pearl Harbor.

After Pearl Harbor, there was no keeping USA out of the war.

Hitler was working hard on PR to keep the US out. Recent I saw a map the Nazis had made with the proportion of the population of German descent for each US state, created for propaganda purposes.

The wrong form of the verb 'seem' in that sentence betrays your incredibly dishonest attempt at selective quoting.

By the time I'd realised my mistake I couldn't delete or edit the comment.

Sorry for implying intent above, we all make mistakes. I have spend some time in journalism, and it sometimes gets to me how much that profession is vilified these days, when my experience was that these are the most fair-minded, diligent, and altruistic people I've ever met.

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