How Right Wing Populism came easily to the Conservative Party

All the evidence points to the alarming extent of man made climate change. This isn’t just evidence available to scientists, but the everyday experience of everyone witnessing or experiencing both hotter temperatures and a more extreme climate. Yet Reform in the UK and the Republicans in the US not only deny this reality but propose policies that will end attempts to mitigate climate change, and instead encourage more use of fossil fuels. It is far from unusual for right wing populist parties to ignore evidence in formulating their policies. They often deride expertise (experts are part of the despised elite, and universities are full of lefties etc), and appeal instead to common sense (the reasoning of the people). In an interesting substack, Joseph Heath relates this to Kahneman’s idea of fast and slow thinking. While I think there is some truth in this, the example of climate change suggests it is not the full story. It is not obvious what common sense about climate change is, and…