From the very first days of this site, eight years ago, I’ve been focused on the goal of “educating and activating the mainstream public”. My effort was initially concerned almost entirely with peak oil, as I came into this room via the “energy” door, not the “environment” door, but I’ve long ago learned enough to conclude that while peak oil is indeed a very big and scary issue, climate change is even worse.

One of the reasons why climate change is worse is simply the level of ignorance and denial among so many people, especially here in the US. While those are two very different factors — ignorance is a condition we’re all born into and have an obligation to attempt to overcome, while denial is a willful act of lying to oneself and others — they have the same eroding effect on our chances for taking meaningful action in our own best interest. This is, of course, exactly the game plan of the deniers, whether they’re funded by fossil fuel companies (or their hangers on, like the railroads, which rely on hauling coal for a huge portion of their revenues), or simply in the game because they’re so wedded to an ideology of “I’ve got mine, screw everyone else, the government is evil”. Whether it’s serial confabulator George Will opening his hydrant of confusion once again or industry mouthpieces telling us CO2 is plant food or the thugs sending death threats to climate scientists, they have one goal: Maintain the status quo as long as possible.[1]

A classic example of just how perverse American politics has become can be found in the apparent recent attempts by the Republicans in the House of Representatives to dismantle every piece of environmental legislation passed after the Lincoln Administration. Why would they try to do such incredibly destructive things to their country, their constituents, hell, to their own families? Simple: They know there’s no chance of their rollbacks becoming law (e.g. Senate rejects measure to stop EPA on climate). They can go on a legislative rampage, and the House is wont to do, vote for all manner of absurdities which will please the more activist members of their support, safe in the assumption that “it’s just politics, no one will be hurt”. They can count on the Senate to be the (somewhat more) adult people in the room, plus there’s a Democrat in the White House who will veto these abominations. In short, it’s nothing more than naked, self-promotion and petty politics.

If that’s not a bad enough example, we now have Donald Trump, who is surely proof that God exists and wants satirists to be happy, leaping with both feet into the birther movement, and apparently being rewarded for it:

Billionaire landlord, hotel magnate, television star and self-described Tea Partier Donald Trump is turning up the heat on President Barack Obama, insisting that after three weeks of probing the question, he is now more convinced than ever that the president has failed to prove he is a citizen of the United States.

“Three weeks ago when I started, I thought he was probably born in this country,” Trump, who is very publicly mulling his own run for the Republican nomination for president in 2012, told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira. “Right now, I have some real doubts.”

…

While many political analysts contend that Trump’s interest in the president’s nativity is a calculated attempt to woo Republican primary voters, half of whom have questions about the president’s citizenship, there are indications that the strategy may be working. According to the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll, Trump is running a close second to Mitt Romney among potential GOP candidates for the White House, with 17 percent of the vote. He is tied with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and is besting such party stalwarts as Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

On NBC’s Nightly News last night the report on this included a breakout of the poll results showing that among self-identified Tea Party members Trump is leading the pack of candidates. (I’m quoting from memory; please accept my apology if this is in error.)

And what role does NBC play in this little piece of political theater? They ran the package I saw last night, complete with a teaser clip from the interview, they ran the full interview this morning, and they ran a piece on their web site. Has it occurred to anyone that giving Donald Trump lots of free attention for saying crazy-ass shit is like trying to put out a house fire by hosing it down with gasoline? (If your business is selling building materials, perhaps it really is a good move.) In more reserved terms: Welcome to the stupidity feedback loop of American politics.

The voters are pissed off at everyone, especially government. They’re so pissed off that it’s remarkably easy, even by our dismal historical standards, to convince them to support policies and candidates that oppose their own best interest. The famous book on this topic, What’s the Matter with Kansas? needs to updated with a focus that takes in perhaps another 49 states.

At least some politicians see this narrow, mean spirited era as a perfect chance for self-promotion. So they leap on climate change or birtherism or anything else that will further divide the country and lock in votes. Remember: For this subset of politicians, it’s not about helping anyone but themselves, and that help means first and foremost getting reelected.

The media, ever eager for a Good Story, covers these antics and squeeze them for all the ratings points and/or eyeballs possible, which only helps expand the Overton window until even the batshit crazy stuff like birtherism starts to sound, well, sane.

And around and around we go — media, politicians, and voters all doing their own thing, never looking at the big picture, spinning ever quicker into the whirlpool of their own inadvertent making.

One could not ask for a clearer example of how naked, unrestrained (or barely restrained) self-interest results in a globally terrible outcome. As one of the sticky notes attached to my monitor says, “stupidity is an emergent property”.

Somehow, we have to find a way to break that cycle and collectively act like responsible adults who can be trusted to make important decisions about their own welfare. Right now, evidence of that capability is sorely lacking.

[1] This is not to say that these people all have identical motivations. Fossil fuel companies want to keep making money, individual ideologues want to do anything to derail government action on just about anything that doesn’t involve someone sending them a check — especially if it could be a hugely important and positive example of something besides the Holy of Holies, the Free Market, solving a problem, and certain media personalities and politicians simply see the ongoing war of words over climate change as yet another opportunity for self-promotion. It all adds up to the same result: They want nothing to change.