It is So Straightforward To Idiot Folks — Misinformation & Myths Abound

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Final Up to date on: thirteenth August 2025, 01:30 am

I’ve been overlaying electrical autos for 13 years, renewable power for 16 years, and local weather science for 25+ years. I’ve seen so many myths on these matters, a lot misinformation. Sadly, plenty of it will get fairly widespread, and it’s tremendous arduous to get individuals to let go of misinformation and consider and perceive actuality.

After debunking myths a number of occasions, as a author and editor, it’s straightforward to then assume, “We’ve completed that. We don’t want to jot down the identical factor once more.” Nonetheless, when myths are unfold relentlessly day by day, we must always most likely cowl all of these items way more recurrently than we do. (After all, for our common readers, the issue is that will get fairly boring.) One factor I feel we have to lastly get round to doing is having a useful resource web page that brings collectively generally held myths, and responses to them, responses we will preserve refining over time. Skeptical Science gives a wonderful instance of how to do that, however with its focus being on local weather science.

To start out, although, we have to give you an inventory of the most important misinformation and myths relating to cleantech — EVs and renewable power, primarily. You possibly can assist by dropping any concepts down within the feedback underneath this text.

The factor that struck me lately and bought me to start out an article with the title above is simply how absurdly straightforward it’s to idiot individuals, to get them to consider nonsense. You simply need to say one thing that sounds sensible and other people will consider it, or repeat an absurd lie over and time and again. Fox Information does it each single day, and really successfully. Folks on social media steer individuals much more incessantly away from actuality. The fossil gasoline trade has gotten numerous individuals to consider that international heating isn’t taking place, or isn’t attributable to CO2 emissions. They’ve gotten individuals to help subsidies for fossil fuels however not for clear power, which is totally absurd. Folks have been tricked into considering EVs are a lot worse for the setting than fossil-fueled vehicles. Donald Trump bought hundreds of thousands of individuals to consider that the 2020 election was “stolen” or “rigged” and bought them to attempt to overthrow democracy. Regardless of a very anti-democratic try and invade the Capitol and cease Congress from doing what voters voted for, an apparent try at a coup to cease the switch of energy, tens of hundreds of thousands of individuals voted for the fraud once more and put him again within the White Home!

Some individuals have been fooled into considering the Earth is flat, vaccines don’t assist forestall lethal illnesses, and Obama isn’t American. For actual. It’s not simply an absurd joke or excessive rarity — hundreds of thousands of individuals consider every kind of nonsense. It’s often surprising to me what individuals will consider simply because they heard it repeatedly on Fox Information.

So, with the myths that you simply’ve heard, don’t be afraid to share probably the most absurd ones. Who is aware of what individuals assume and what’s unfold in numerous faux information circles on social media? And likewise tell us in case you have seen glorious methods of correcting the misinformation in a pleasant, efficient method. Whereas I’m clearly not holding again in regards to the idiocy of many individuals whereas writing this text, and never regarding myself with politically blinded individuals who have fallen for widespread right-wing media traps, after we get to writing responses to widespread myths and misinformation, we’ll be diplomatic and extra inclusive. In spite of everything, the intention is to get as many individuals as attainable to cease believing nonsense, even true, real idiots. We need to dissolve misinformation, not push individuals deeper into it.

It’s really easy to idiot individuals. It ought to be straightforward to unfool them, proper?

Featured picture by Gerd Altmann