Climate denial functions as a symbol-laden conservative culture war, not reasoned science debate

Evidence

Clive Hamilton, at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Australia, casts the battles over environmental conservation as a more deep-rooted culture war between conservative and liberal worldviews (Hamilton, 2010a). He notes that many of the attacks on environmentalism and climate science are spearheaded by conservative think tanks heavily funded by the petroleum and other energy industries. … Conservative advocates in think tanks and like-minded media, he argues, are united in a “hatred of environmentalism … variously seen to be the enemy of individual freedom, an ideology of smug elites, an attack on capitalism and consumerism, and the vanguard of world government” (Hamilton, 2010b). They brand human-based climate changes as a left-wing ideology masquerading as environmental protection. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2538

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s Cooper social-conservatism claims and authoritarianism literature — a mechanism by which a policy dispute gets recast as identity defense. The psychology: when an issue is framed as an attack on one’s group/freedoms, disengagement from opposing evidence becomes motivated. — connects to: Higher education amplifies science rejection among politically conservative Americans — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 141; Manufactured doubt, not genuine debate, explains public confusion over climate science consensus — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 75; Fossil fuel funding manufactured doubt that made climate change a partisan media issue — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 160 (+1 more)
• SEED: Angle: the strategy of labeling an opponent’s position as ‘an ideology of smug elites’ engages moral disengagement by denying the messenger’s legitimacy — a reusable rhetorical move across climate, vaccination, and school-board fights.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2538