I guess this statement of yours sum it up
"rather than people who sincerely believe what they're saying"
Sincerely believe what that it's the Sun no wait it's Al Gore, No wait it's volcanoes, no wait it's cosmic rays, no wait it's Governments, no wait it's communists, no wait it's clouds, no wait it's the club of Rome, no wait it's HAARP, no wait it's not happening at all, no wait we are about to have an ice age, no wait it's natural cycles.
Many deniers (sorry they are not by any measure skeptics) push most if not all of the above, showing without any real doubt that they are in fact trolling. As they switch between these various (and many more) theories on an almost daily basis. You have those like kano who seem of late to have started banging there chests and trying to claim they are not deniers yet he like the others post the same BS from the same BS denier blogs day after day. This is someone who first claimed he was a retired fisherman then changed that story to a retired power station worker, who also claims to have retired to first the Middle East and then the Philippines while also claiming to have a daily knowledge of the beaches of England, boy he does get around.
Some are obvious trolls, but a lot of them are just silly little people looking for a place to vent. No one that has informed themselves denies global warming and the resulting climate change. Those who 20 years ago were sceptics, are now some of the leaders in climate change research and investment, from oil companies to big investment banks and insurance companies.
There is no such thing as an educated denier, just stooges and contrarians, the real world is preparing itself for the inevitable as we pass 400ppm CO2.
I'm not a troll. I believe everything I post because I have a reason to believe it. I think most of the AGW dissenters believe what they post.
I believe that the AGW cultists believe in what they post too. What is most relevant is the reasoning for why they believe what they believe. The motivation is a major factor.
AGW cultists want draconian social changes and the dissenters do not believe the situation warrants it because those changes are so draconian and a direct assault on our ethics and morals.
I think all the skeptics really believe that AGW has been blown completely out of proportion by the alarmists. I have my suspicions that Hey Dook is actually a skeptic posing as an alarmist to make them all look like raving lunatics.
I think no, most regular deniers here believe what they say (well most of the time anyway) after trillions of $ down the drain, and predictions of gloom doom and castastrophies all of which have not happened, it is easy to be skeptical, to carryon believing in AGW is an act of faith
many are actually cynics,
big difference.
You can tell a cynic if they're mean-spirited, arrogant and try their best to spill a question
Yeah
There are no doubt occasional trolls here, but none of the regular deniers to me like being a parodying denier. In other words, though such regulars are indeed usually here to regurgitate stock deceptions, to disinform, and disrupt, in other words to engage in troll-like behavior, they do so because they truly believe in the denier crocs, or that non-deniers are so alarmingly dangerous as to have to be stopped by any means, and they aren't just parodying those crocs.
Ahh, Got to love this type of argument. We are so right that the other side are a bunch of morons, neener neener neener.
PATHETIC!!!!
This may be a Poe's Law situation, but I can't help but suspect that at least some of the leading "skeptic" posters here on Y!A are actually trolls, rather than people who sincerely believe what they're saying.
If you had to guess, which of our regulars do you think might just be posting parodies of denialist "logic", rather than actually being denialists themselves?
Nope.
The obvious one would be Sagebrush. I was tempted to post Maxx, but the fact that he blocks realists indicates that he knows that he is losing the argument. Sagebrush acts as if he is winning the argument. He would really have to be delusional to actually believe that he is winning the argument.
The problem is that there is an extremely thin line between those who want to appear to be stupid (trolls) and authentic stupids (deniers). I am still not 100% convinced that Billy is a troll: he sounds like such an authentic denier to me!
It's tempting to think so but the truth is the well of willful ignorance is bottomless.
I'd say most if not all, nobody can really be that stupid
