Reality Deniers

America now exists in the Reality Denial phase of its existence. Don’t like the impact of global warming? Then all the thousands of climate scientists are wrong. Or the decades of climate science are just a world-wide hoax. Do deniers have proof of a hoax? No. In fact, there is absolutely no evidence of a hoax, to say nothing of proof. But deniers don’t need proof, because reality is whatever they choose to believe.

Climate scientists long ago predicted that as the earth heats up, climate will change, causing more severe weather events. Hurricanes will become more intense. Droughts will become more severe and longer-lasting. And that has happened, but deniers say it’s a coincidence.

When the president doesn’t like something he sees on the news, he calls it “fake news” – as though calling it fake makes it fake. He can say one thing, and say the opposite an hour later, and then deny he ever said the first thing. He gets away with this because his supporters are reality deniers. To them, reality is simply what they want it to be, or whatever their leader says it is.

Want to keep your kids safe? Don’t vaccinate them. Of course, the reality is that thousands of children once died every year from diseases that are easily prevented today. And researchers who have studied vaccinations for years say there is no connection between vaccinations and conditions such as autism. But vaccine deniers believe all the research is wrong or fake. There is no longer belief in objective reality. Reality has become whatever they want to believe.

According to this Wikipedia article on Denialism, “In the psychology of human behavior, denialism is a person's choice to deny reality, as a way to avoid a psychologically uncomfortable truth.”

There are many kinds of deniers: flat-earthers, moon-landing deniers, Holocaust deniers, AIDS deniers, climate-change deniers, evolution deniers, and animal-pain-and suffering-deniers, to name a few. When the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto and sent back photos, deniers said it never happened. There is historical denialism such as Armenian Genocide Denial and Japanese War Crime Denial.

Denialism can destroy lives and damage economies. In California right now, Los Angeles is fighting the worst wildfire it has ever experienced. Northern California is experiencing huge wildfires that have destroyed much of Napa Valley wine country. This is the predictable result of the recent long droughts there. Of course, many people will choose to deny that reality.

Ironically, deniers are in denial about being deniers. Only when they rush head long into a wall will they consider the possibility that the wall is real.