At a town hall meeting near Philadelphia, 18-year-old Rose Strauss had a question for Scott Wagner, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania:
You’ve said that climate change is a result of people’s body heat, and are refusing to take action on the issue. Does this have anything to do with the $200,000 that you have taken from the fossil fuel industry?
Wagner responded by calling her “young and naive” in a way that seems to me to be shamefully condescending; judge for yourself:
As for her question, USA Today reports
He did not answer her question and ultimately shifted the conversation to concern about sewage spilling into the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg.
It turns out Scott Wagner really did say that body heat is part of the reason for global warming, and added the Earth moving closer to the sun as well:
I haven’t been in a science class in a long time, but the Earth moves closer to the sun every year — you know, the rotation of the Earth. We’re moving closer to the sun.
…
We have more people … you know, humans have warm bodies. So is heat coming off?
Actually, at present the Earth is moving very slightly further away from the sun each year. I also doubt that he quite understands the difference between Earth’s rotation and its revolution around the sun.
It seems that Scott Wagner’s callous insult to the young woman is costing him votes. Do you think maybe he’s “naive”?
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Open Mind 
That a corrupt Republican politician is forced to evade such a question is unavoidable. That the audience is clapping when Scott Wagner insult her is shocking. Are there so many swamp monsters in that room?
With Our Revolution and the Justice Democrats there is now a new generation of non-corrupt Democrat politicians that do not take corporate money. They will have less money for their campaign, but can prioritise popular policies over those of the donor class. At least some of the others have vowed not to take Fossil Fuel money.
Where are the non-corrupt Republicans? Where is the movement to help non-corrupt conservatives run for office?
Ironically, the electorate is naive enough to vote for someone like this anyway.
Certainly Rose was very, very naive if she expected an honest, straightforward answer to any part of her question.
Imagine Scott Wagner saying “you are very, very naive if you expect an honest, straightforward answer from me”. Which would be accurate but not the meaning for naive that he would admit.
I suspect Rose may have had a pretty good idea about the response she would receive–in substance, if not necessarily in tone (which was, IMO, appalling.) You don’t have to be even a casual activist for long before you get used to responses close on the order of “Thanks, I value your thougts, but I will now do the exact opposite of what you urge.”
As Noam Chomsky said: “The Republican Party of the USA is the most dangerous organization on the planet”. I concur and so do millions of people. America needs to throw off the clutches of this retrograde, corrupt and stupid organization, which has hindered progress for two decades now. It is time to send these criminals packing.
I don’t think politicians taking fossil fuel money at this stage of the game are naïve. I think they should be in prison. Preferably, one sited at the equator.
As for the morons clapping: Orwell’s sheep in Animal Farm displayed the same level of intellect. I always thought that book an exaggeration: it turns out it is not.
Actually, they are the ones calling someone else naive.
From here it appears you need to change your democratic system to one more representative .
They are not naive.
I referenced willful ignorance on another thread .
Some suffer from it purely due to ideology.
For many in your political system the motivation is the money that secures their position of power.
I dropped out of school at 15 and despite the lack of education can easily spot the logic errors implicit in much denial. Anyone with a reasonable level of education should find climate change an uncontroversial fact.
Denial is a losing preposition. The evidence is only going to increase as our world adjusts to new climate regimes. The youth growing up are aware about the reality of the future we face.
Time will shuffle the GOP away from power as the voting base renews.
Most of the rest of the world is getting on with the changes we need. This will force the USA to engage or be bypassed or marginalized on the world stage. Humanity will eventuality solve this problem or perish. All we hawks can do is try our best to push humanity towards what we know is the necessary goal of zero emissions.
The future belongs to others, have faith in those to come.
“Naive” is the wrong wording: he is an idiot and you can see him telling you that when he listenened to Rose’s question, from 0:10 onwards. One day the rests of a then hugely decimated human society will call such idiots criminals.
My opinion on this is forceful, but would hardly be edifying to restate.
One thing that should be cemented in the history of contemporary US politics is that the Republican Party of Trump is inextricably tied to self-serving corruption, treason, and denial of the truth. Many people who support it might not be able to analyse or understand the situation now, but every decision made by Republicans in Congress and the Senate, every policy that they make and execute, every statement and position that they utter in public or in private, should be directly and permanently tied to the identity of this party.
And with the benefit of hindsight the significances and consequences of the modern Republican ‘way’ should be made obvious to all. The Republicans must come to know that they failed their country and the world, and that they have no moral integrity with with to exercise power. All Republicans need to realise that the party is either rebuilt from the ground up, or should face permanent exile to the dustbin of governance.
Astonishing ignorance from someone attempting to become Governor of the state. He clearly knows nothing about how the earth’s surface warms and nothing about the huge decrease in wild animal body mass over the last few decades (not that body heat is a factor at all). And the earth moving closer to the sun sounds like the kind of “argument” one makes up because one can’t think of any other reason that doesn’t involve humans.
What it comes down to is this–about 35% of the American public will continue to support President Goodbrain and his ilk no matter what. About 10% more started supporting him unquestioningly after the tax cut. So, roughly 30% are too stupid to even vote in their own interest, and an additional 10-15% can be bought very cheaply.
Even if we get rid of the imbeciles who currently associate an R with their name, we will still have 30-45% of the population who will remain proudly wrong about everything.
Democracy in America was nice while it lasted.
For those willing and able to do some public action in support of sanity, you may want to hold the date of September 8:
https://riseforclimate.org/