Hey guys, why is it getting warmer? Did y'all leave the stove on?

some people say the party divide in the US is based on gender. which may be true to some degree but really I think the true divide is intelligence
republicans have literally just become the stupid party
(source: my ass)
- This isn't just stupid. Anyone over 20 remembers that it wasn't this hot for this long. This requires that they tell themselves that the heat is for some natural reason.
  
  Or they pretend that that one really hot day that made the newspaper in 1972 is perfectly representative for the other 364 days, because it's always warm in summer.
  
  The average person, even in the southern US where it's warmer, seems to understand that it doesn't snow as much as it used to. I've heard numerous people mention it over the years. It's when you try to get them to consider why that might be the case that their brains start turning to mush.
  
  It isn't that way everywhere though. My part of southeast Ohio has consistently been below average. I know other places have to be extra, extra hot to reach the increased global temperatures, but millions and millions of Americans simply are not extperiencing any kind of increased heat.
- It's neither. It is wilful ignorance. All those studies sorting political affiliations by education, IQ and whatnot never show a difference that is nearly as large as these kind of comments suggest. There are small trends, but not more.
  The average IQ of republicans isn't much lower. They just choose to squander their potential. Never underestimate the potential often human beings to lie to themselves. It is one of our most honed skills.
  
  It's also probably a factor, that when you pretend global warming isn't man made, that you can't do anything against it so you don't have to change your way of life
- Probably could have added :
  Source: Fox News
- Or uneducated. Or actively denying reality. Some combination of the three.

A sizable portion of the population would convince themselves that the sky is green, if that was their party's official position.
And a sizable portion of politicians, of a certain moral character, would take the official position that the sky is green if someone paid them enough.
On an unrelated note, I wonder which party is heavily sponsored by the oil and gas industry?
- The answer, like in most countries, is both of the largest parties.
  Can't have the other party get in and get rid of your subsidies, bad for business, ya know?
- Unfortunately both.
  Not that the GOP's positions on climate change aren't far more deranged, of course, just noting that the Dems are also heavily influenced by lobbying.

- Rodents and insects. (Notably some species of caterpillar.)
  
  Really? I knew of the groundhog, but I thought that was it. Do you, by chance, know where I could learn about the caterpillar oracle?

Well, science doesn't care about their opinions.
- Elections do care about their opinions, and elections have consequences. Very serious consequences.
  
  Not really in terms of climate change were totally fucked on that one no matter which party's in power.
- Relevant xkcd
- We have a scientist LARPer in this thread begging for Bitcoin, right now. Does that count?
- Social science does.

And when you watched the clown beat the defenseless mime to death you saw it laugh. Then, the clown called the mimes mom's dirty names, waved a hitler flag and shot the mime. Afterwards calling him a removed and gesturing for his widow to call him later. He then slapped you in the face with a rubber circus dink, called you Ugly Stan and you called him by his first name asking for another.
After all of that, what do you think caused the clown to do such a terrible thing?
GoOp: "I don't think it was the clown."
- GoOp: “I don’t think it was the clown.”
  GoOp: "Akshully, clowns don't exist, also you just hate clowns!"
  
  Holy shit I am fucking howling at this.
  7am and my day is made. Thank you. Legit see BoBo trying to flex that in my head.

nore worried about the fact that of those that answered that global warming isn't occurring, only 50% still think that it doesn't exist in a different question. did the other 50% just suddenly reconsider?
- it looks like they got pooled between "doesn't exist" and "no" to "are oil and gas companies responsible?". "global warming doesn't exist and if it does it isn't their (our) fault"
- The other 50% believe in global cooling.
  
  And they'll be correct once the currents in the Atlantic collapse in the 30's.