Climate sceptic James Delingpole's cheap shot at Newsweek backfires Response from 88-year-old war veteran shoots down attempt to discredit letter published in Newsweek in support of Al Gore [image: British Climate Change denier James Delingpole] The rent-a-quote climate change sceptic and right-wing, second world war buff, James Delingpole. Photograph: jamesdelingpole.com
Leo Hickman <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/leohickman> Thursday 19 November 2009 07.02 ESTFirst published on Thursday 19 November 2009 07.02 EST - <https://www.facebook.com/dialog/share?app_id=180444840287&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2Fblog%2F2009%2Fnov%2F19%2Fclimate-sceptic-james-delingpole%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_fb> - <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Climate%20sceptic%20James%20Delingpole%27s%20cheap%20shot%20at%20Newsweek%20backfires%20%7C%20Leo%20Hickman&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2Fblog%2F2009%2Fnov%2F19%2Fclimate-sceptic-james-delingpole%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_tw> - <?subject=Climate%20sceptic%20James%20Delingpole%27s%20cheap%20shot%20at%20Newsweek%20backfires%20%7C%20Leo%20Hickman&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2Fblog%2F2009%2Fnov%2F19%2Fclimate-sceptic-james-delingpole%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_link> - View more sharing options Shares 3 Comments74 <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2009/nov/19/climate-sceptic-james-delingpole#comments> For those of you who have not yet stumbled across his oeuvre before, James Delingpole <http://jamesdelingpole.com/> does a nice turn over on the Telegraph blogs <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/jamesdelingpole/> as a rent-a-quote climate change sceptic and good all-round right-wing contrarian. He reprises this role each week for the Spectator <http://www.spectator.co.uk/search/author/?searchString=James%20Delingpole>, which also played host this summer to his penetrating interview with Ian Plimer <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/jul/09/george-monbiot-ian-plimer>, the author of Heaven and Earth: Global Warming – the Missing Science. In addition, Delingpole frequently states <http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/3022631/extraordinarily-ordinary.thtml> that he's something of a second world war buff. Oh, and, lest we forget, he also recently popped up on C4's When Boris Met Dave <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/6263155/David-Cameron-at-Oxford-University-the-truth.html>as a talking head to reminisce about his days spent with the aforementioned Tory rivals while at Oxford University. He revealed that he was aggrieved not to be invited, unlike his contemporaries, into the Bullingdon Club, or "the Buller" as he longingly describes it. Now that we've established his credentials to the uninitiated, let's move on to a blog he wrote for the Telegraph this week <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017100/how-al-gores-amen-corner-newsweek-censored-his-critics/>, entitled "How Al Gore's amen corner Newsweek censored his critics". It's largely a riff on a recent Newsbusters blog post <http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2009/11/15/newsweek-admits-74-percent-gore-letters-are-critical-fail-publish-any> about how Newsweek ran a series of letters <http://www.newsweek.com/id/221658> supportive of Al Gore the week after he appeared on its front cover. What upset Newsbusters – which says <http://newsbusters.org/about> it is the "leader in documenting, exposing and neutralising liberal media bias" – was that Newsweek had admitted that 74% of the letters it had received about Al Gore had been critical of him and his views about climate change. So why, asked Newsbusters (and, in his echo chamber, Delingpole), did Newsweek only publish positive letters the following week? To give Newsbusters and Delingpole their dues, it does seem to be a legitimate question. But Delingpole didn't stop there: he also aimed his artillery at a US war veteran who wrote one of the supportive letters published by Newsweek saying that his letter was the worst of the lot. This is the offending letter sent in by "Lee Bidgood Jr of Gainesville, Florida" that Newsweek chose to publish: Propaganda by global-warming sceptics and deniers reminds me of 1944, when as an army officer I saw living skeletons in striped pyjamas. Horror stories about Nazi concentration camps suddenly rang true. I wondered how intelligent people could commit such atrocities. History records the effectiveness of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda. I hope Al Gore and others can prevail over today's anti-science propaganda. Strong words, indeed. So strong, in fact, that it led Delingpole to imply that the letter's author might, in fact, be a fraud: Gosh I do hope they [Newsweek] got their fact checkers on to that one. Otherwise, I'd suspect that this was the concoction of some young eco-freak who wasn't even born in '44 using the Holocaust and the respect we grant war veterans to make a cheap political point. That is quite some slur – even if delivered by inference – to aim at a war veteran, but especially when trying to make your own "cheap political point". So much so that you would have thought that Delingpole – a self-confessed second world war aficionado, remember – might have done some fact-checking of his own. Alas, evidently not – as I discovered when I approached Lee Bidgood Jr to ask him if we he wished to respond. This is what he had to say: The "writer" [of that blog] seems unworthy of a reply. However, for your information: I was born in 1921, took advanced ROTC 1937-41 which made me eligible for a commission when I reached 21 or war was declared. The latter happened first. I was commissioned a 2nd Lt, 2 April, 1942, ASN 0-441619 in the Coast Artillery Corps. Trained at Camp Hulen, Texas in AA, and was assigned to the 436th AAA BN AW SM Promoted to 1st Lt 11 August, 1942. Participated in seven campaigns: Fr Morocco-Algeria; Algeria-Tunisia; Algeria-Sicily; Rome-Arno; southern France; central Europe; Rhineland. Two invasions: Fr Morocco; Sicily. Promoted to Capt. 1 March, 1945. Discharged 4 February, 1946. The scene I described for Newsweek occurred when our Battalion was in convoy from southern France heading up to the front. A train was transporting concentration camp inmates from somewhere in France to Germany. Our artillery or aircraft had knocked out the engine, derailing some of the cars and spilling the inmates. Newsweek shortened my account of the incident. Much later our unit at war's end was in bivouac in Bavaria, when we smelled death after the wind shifted. It was Dachau. Since retiring from a middle-level management position (an endangered species) in a large corporation, I have been an environmental activist with prime emphasis on climate change and what we must do about it. I now live in Gainesville, Florida in a retirement complex. Memo to Delingpole: by all means have a pop at wacko communist alarmists such as myself – I'm sure you will – but probably best to leave 88-year-old war veterans, even if they do happen to be concerned about climate change, out of it next time. On Monday, January 2, 2017 at 1:30:59 PM UTC-6, Bill wrote: > > > > > ------------------------------ > From: [email protected] <javascript:> > To: [email protected] > Sent: 1/2/2017 11:26:00 A.M. Pacific Standard Time > Subj: Re: [PoliticalForum] Fwd: [grendelreport] Rules for Righties -- a > War-Winning... > > RIGHT ON! A great piece and thanx for the encouragement to keep at it and > we will win. > > A 40%'er from California. > > P.S. Just keep an eye on this liberal dominated state to see and > understand where these fools would take us all. For example: Two > Democrat members of our County Board of Supervisors' is proposing to take > $1,000,000 of property tax payer funds to spend on attorneys to represent > illegals in Court! We can guess those attorneys taking the million dollars > will be their Democratic lawyer friends. This at a time when we need roads > fixed, sewers cleaned out before the winter rains, bridges reinforced etc. > etc. etc. Their priorities are all screwed up!!! We must fight on..... > In a message dated 1/2/2017 5:51:18 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, > [email protected] <javascript:> writes: > > > > > > > > > > > > > http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/01/01/2016-just-start-going-win-2017/ > DELINGPOLE: Rules for Righties — a War-Winning Manifesto for 2017 2016 > was a great year for most of us – but just because we’ve gained the > beachhead doesn’t mean we’re going to win the war. > > With Brexit and Donald Trump, we’ve done the equivalent of capturing > everywhere from Pointe Du Hoc to Pegasus Bridge. But just like with D-Day, > the worst of the fighting is yet to come. Our enemy is fanatical, > determined, well organised. Plus, they still hold most of the key > positions: the big banks, the corporations, the top law firms, the civil > service, local government, the universities, the schools, the mainstream > media, Hollywood… Give those bastards half the chance and they’ll drive us > back into the sea – which, in contemporary terms, means nixing Brexit (or > giving us “soft Brexit”, which is basically the same thing) and frustrating > all the things President Trump will try to do to Make America Great Again. > > I use the war analogy first because World War II analogies never fail, but > second because this really is a war that we’re fighting. The bad news is > that wars are hard, costly and ugly. The good news is that we’re on the > right side and we’re going to win. Here’s how: > > *We will never underestimate the wickedness of the enemy* > > The liberal-left loves to portray us as the bad guys. But that’s > just projection. From Mao’s China to Stalin’s Soviet Union, from Cuba to > North Korea, history is littered with the wreckage of failed left wing > schemes to make the world a better, fairer place. > > As the great, now sadly-retired Thomas Sowell > <http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2016/12/27/12-fantastic-thomas-sowell-quotes-in-honor-of-his-retirement-n2263995> > > says, “Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an > intellectual could ignore or evade it.” Its malign influence is still with > us today. Innocent boys being accused of rape on college campuses; genuine > rapes committed by gangs of Muslim taxi drivers in northern England and by > gangs of Muslim immigrants in German cities like Cologne; hundreds of > thousands driven into fuel poverty, landscapes ravaged, avian fauna sliced > and diced as a result of crazy renewable energy policies; a > Nobel-prize-winning scientist driven out of his job because a feminist > loser misreported something he said about women at a conference; > generations of kids denied a rigorous, disciplined, useful education; the > needless violence and tension engendered by #blacklivesmatter: we should > never concede the moral high ground to the kind of people who make all this > sort of stuff possible, no matter how many times they tell us how evil and > selfish and uncaring we are. > > *We will always remember that we are better than them* > > I’ll give you an example: the dumbass lecturer at Drexel who tweeted that > what he wanted for Christmas was “white genocide” > <http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/26/the-far-left-ideas-that-motivate-white-genocide-professor/>. > > Should we be demanding that the university authorities sack him at once? Of > course we shouldn’t. > > The man has performed an invaluable public service: he has provided the > perfect example of how ingrained the values of the left are in academe; he > has shown prospective applicants to the Politics and Global Studies course > at Drexel University in Philadelphia that unless they want to be > indoctrinated with hard-left lunacy they might want to reconsider; he has > further shown alumni of Drexel University who believe in old fashioned > stuff like free markets that maybe they shouldn’t include their alma mater > in their million dollar bequests, after all. > > Sure, we should jeer and crow when we catch idiots like this man > expressing reprehensible opinions. But the idea that someone should > actually lose their job for something they said on Twitter ought to be > anathema to those of us on the right side of the argument. One of the most > thoroughly hateful things about the left is the way it tries to constrain > free expression. If we play the same game, we are no better than they are. > And face it: we just are. > > *We will take the fight to the enemy, not cower in No Man’s Land* > > One of the best things about 2016 for me was the way it gave the lie to > the weaselish and wet aphorism – so often repeated by so many of our > impeccably reasonable, sensible and balanced TV and newspaper pundits – > that elections are “won in the centre ground.” > > This was the Belial philosophy that gave us, in the U.S., that hideous > continuum from the Bushes and the Clintons to Obama; and in Britain, the > grotesque and malign Third Way squishery that took us from Tony Blair > through to his (self-admitted heir) David Cameron and beyond. (It’s also > the mindset which invented the disgraceful, sell-out concept of “soft > Brexit”.) > > No wonder so many of us had become so fed up with politics: no matter > which party you voted for, whether the notionally left-wing one or the > notionally right-wing one you still seemed to end up up with the same old > vested interests, the same old liberal Establishment elite. > > Of course we should always despise the liberal-left because their > philosophy is morally bankrupt, dangerous and wrong. But I sometimes think > that the people we should despise most of all are the squishes who pretend > to be on our side of the argument but forever betray our cause. Sometimes > they do this by throwing the more outspoken among us to the wolves in order > to signal how tolerant and virtuous they are > <https://twitter.com/JamesDelingpole/status/811282023075708928>; > sometimes they do this by endorsing some fatuous liberal position in order > to show their willingness to compromise. > > I call the latter approach the “dogshit yogurt fallacy.” > > If conservatives like fruit or honey in their yogurt and liberals prefer > to eat it with dogshit, it is NOT a sensible accommodation – much as our > centrist conservative columnists might wish it so – to say: “All right. How > about we eat our yogurt with a little bit of both?” We need to understand, > very clearly, that there *are* such things as right and wrong; and that, > furthermore, it is *always* worth fighting to the bitter end for the > right thing rather than accepting second best because a bunch of lawyers > and politicians and hairdressers from Brazil and squishy newspaper > columnists and other members of the liberal elite have told us that second > best is the best we can hope for. > > On Brexit, for example, I’m with Her Majesty the Queen > <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4069540/Well-said-Ma-BBC-s-Political-Editor-reveals-Queen-supports-Brexit-QUENTIN-LETTS-says-course-does-understands-people-far-better-politician.html>: > > “‘I don’t see why we can’t just get out? What’s the problem?’ > > *We will never apologise, never explain, **never** surrender* > > See those scalped corpses, littering the plains? These are the guys – and > it is, invariably, men – who thought that if only they showed contrition > for their confected crimes the enemy would leave them alone. Sir Tim Hunt > <http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2015/12/18/sir-tim-hunt-to-leave-britain-how-feminists-chased-away-one-of-britains-geniuses/> > > apologised, the guy from Saatchi > <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3718986/Woman-high-flier-hits-Saatchi-boss-sexism-row-Company-s-chief-creative-officer-says-comments-upset-huge-employees.html>apologised, > > the guy on the Rosetta space programme who wore the “sexist” shirt > <http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/11/15/brilliant-anti-feminist-spoof-claims-space-scientist-s-shirt-is-sexist/> > > apologised. A fat lot of good it did them. The vengeful liberal-left > doesn’t just want humiliation – it wants total annihilation. > > Giving even an inch of ground to an enemy so implacable and vile is not > only futile – but it also badly lets the side down by granting them a power > that they do not deserve. The most recent sorry example of this was Steve > Martin who actually deleted a tweet praising his late friend Carrie > Fisher > <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/28/steve-martin-deletes-tweet-calling-carrie-fisher-b/>as > > a “beautiful creature” because a bunch of feminazis on Twitter complained > that this was sexist objectification. > > Look, I know it’s a scary thing when the SJW witch-hunt mob turns on you. > But read Vox Day’s SJW Attack Survival Guide > <http://www.voxday.net/mart/SJW_Attack_Survival_Guide.pdf>, follow the > example of Nigel Farage and fight these people to the very last bullet > (keeping the final round for yourself). Do not surrender! (And if you need > reminding why not, read this piece I wrote the other day, of which I am > very proud > <http://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2016/12/25/delingpole-moronic-self-righteous-disgusting-losers-tried-to-turn-the-berlin-attack-on-nigel-farage/> > ) > > *We will laugh in the face of death* > > Something I’ve noticed about the liberal-left: they don’t have a sense of > humour. > > This is odd, given that 99.99 per cent of professional comedians are > liberals. But it’s also unfailingly true. Go on social media and see for > yourself: all the wittiest banter, all the funniest memes, all the > snarkiest jibes – they all come from the right side of the argument, not > the left. And this is as it should be for not only is humour a sign of > intellectual superiority but it’s also entirely the right attitude for a > team that wants to win. > > Humour requires a degree of self-knowledge; an ability to recognise your > own weaknesses (vital if you are to triumph over them) and not to take > yourself too seriously. Also, it’s a sign that you are a happy warrior – in > the manner of heroes like Andrew Breitbart. > > I always try to keep this in mind when I’m engaged in a vicious tussle > with the liberal-left: that witty barbs hurt them much more than > anger. When your enemy takes himself so seriously, no weapon is more > effective than a cutting quip. Sometimes it’s hard not be to angry because > the left has given us so much to be angry about. But we must resist the > temptation if we can because it just plays into the left’s caricature of us > as angry, blustering conservatives. We should remember at all times that in > the culture wars, we are the Greek city states and the enemy are the > Persians. If you want to know the significance of this, I recommend you > read Victor Davis Hanson’s *Carnage and Culture. *Basically, free men > will always fight better than serfs because they have more to lose… > > *We will mercilessly expose their weaknesses* > > People on the liberal-left are just like us, really, only slightly less > evolved. Their brains are stuck in that stage of evolution just before ours > – the hunter-gatherer stage when we were all roaming the plains and were > programmed to respond in the most basic way to our most primal instincts. > > This is why so much of the left-liberal ‘argument’ has to do with raw > emotion rather than logic; it’s why they’ll almost never engage with us on > detail, preferring simply to use what Vox Day calls “point and shriek” > tactics, or to try to belittle and demean us with emotive (but meaningless) > pejoratives like “racist”, “homophobe”, “misogynist”, “Islamophobe”, > “climate change denier.” > > They have been using these techniques very successfully for years and in > my experience there is only one effective way of dealing with this: you > have to *show their workings. *You have to notice what they are doing and > then you have to explain to other people what they are doing. > > This is hard: it requires patience, courage and persistence – the > equivalent of maintaining discipline under fire. Again, I refer you to this > piece > <http://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2016/12/25/delingpole-moronic-self-righteous-disgusting-losers-tried-to-turn-the-berlin-attack-on-nigel-farage/>I > > wrote recently because it embodies the kind of attitude and techniques > required. Essentially it was a response to a mass assault by SJWs using > Twitter to brand those of us on the right as heartless, uncaring, ruthless, > evil people who would use a man’s recently widowed status against him. The > attacks came in 140 character bursts. The response took almost 3000 words. > But that’s the way it is: logic and rational argument take much longer to > develop than emotive cheap shots. If we don’t use logic and rational > argument though, we concede the field to the pointers and shriekers. > > *Leave no man behind* > > Diversity is our strength. This is the kind shit leftists, say, I know, > but hear me out. At a conservative political meeting I attended in DC, > recently, a woman stood up to address the assembled members of the Vast > Right Wing conspiracy. Black and dressed a bit like the lovable, wise > sassy, prostitute character from a 1970s Blaxploitation movie, she did not > look obviously like a card-carrying Republican. But she was and she had > come from California with a message: “Don’t abandon us! > > We know everyone in the conservative movement thinks that California is a > joke. But 40 per cent of us voted for Donald Trump and we need your help!” > She’s right. Unlike the left – which sees ethnic, sexual and religious > minorities mainly as client victim groups to patronise and exploit for > identity politics purposes – we on the right “celebrate diversity” by not > giving a damn about diversity. > > The reason Sowell’s great and Milo’s great and Krauthammer’s great is not > because they’re black and gay and disabled and therefore “helpful” to our > cause, but simply because they think clearly and sensibly and have come to > the right conclusions about the world. We support our own through thick and > thin. We are all equal and we all have equal rights, just like the 14th > amendment says. (Which means, by the way, that we don’t believe in positive > discrimination – which is just another form of discrimination, as practised > by the disgusting left not the sensible and just right). > > *Always attack* > > This, pretty much, was the tactic of the Royal Navy throughout the > Napoleonic Wars – even when outnumbered and outgunned by the French and the > Spanish. > > Today we are similarly outgunned and outnumbered by the loathsome edifice > of the liberal establishment – and if we are going to reduce it to rubble, > as of course we must, then we shall have to fight as aggressively as Nelson > and Cochrane did. > > For far, far too long, conservatives have been fighting a defensive war – > spending more time apologising for being conservatives than actually taking > on the enemy. But at last, in the U.S. at least, we have a leader who is > not afraid of a fight. What does “always attack” mean in practice, though? > Well here’s a perfect example: a recent *New York Times* story headed > “Wielding > Claims of ‘Fake News’ Conservatives take aim at mainstream media > <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/25/us/politics/fake-news-claims-conservatives-mainstream-media-.html?_r=0> > “. > > The author of the story appears slightly taken back that conservatives are > behaving in this way. Surely we should be feeling guilty for all those fake > news stories spread by evil right-wing people on the internet in order to > deceive the weak-minded by acting against their interests by voting for > Brexit and Donald Trump? But no, far from apologising it seems that we on > the right have been on the attack. If anyone is responsible for pumping out > fake news these last few decades its the liberal elite and their > mouthpieces in the MSM, not us. > > OK. We’re done. Unleash hell. > > > > > > ------------------------------ > [image: https://www.avast.com/antivirus] <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> > > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> > > > > __._,_.___ > ------------------------------ > Posted by: "Beowulf" <[email protected] <javascript:>> > ------------------------------ > > > Visit Your Group > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmZ20ycjNyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0ODMzNTY0ODQ-> > > > > [image: > https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlYjljYTU2BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQ4MzM1NjQ4NA--] > > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlYjljYTU2BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQ4MzM1NjQ4NA--> > > • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • > Unsubscribe <javascript:> • Terms of Use > <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> > > __,_._,___ > > > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > <http://www.politicalforum.com/> > * It's active and moderated. 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