From An Angry Reader:
Professor Hanson,
I am not really angry. I apologize for the subject line but I guessed that it would get my email read.
My primary complaint…..
Your last “angry reader” entry is 2/28/20.
I know you are busy, but some of us would love it (and buy it) if you had a book form of telling us about your responses to the people who didn’t think very much before they wrote to complain at you (or, just put more responses up regularly). I actually printed years of your responses to share.
My father (US Army in the Philippines) and my father-in-law served in WW2. Melinda’s (my wife’s) father earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his service (Ken was on the USS Trout before it was sunk). Your book, which I have passed on to another, explained the magnitude and importance of the service they gave and amplified the meaning of their service for us. Thank you so much for that.
As an average American, living all my life in the Bay Area, I truly wish there were people like you, with their brain on fire, who would give their time to guide the masses through their mazes (which is what I perceive that you do anyway), as “politicians” dedicated to improving the lives of the people who pay their wages. What our country needs is intelligent leadership. And now, it seems, that even Birx, Fauci, and certainly Trump, read your columns or pieces and respond as if they thought what you said. You have to appreciate that! And they all know where the thinking came from.
Please help them and us all in the process. Your columns are absolutely great but you should have a cabinet post or advisory position where they could absorb reality more frequently, I think. I bet that Trump is smart enough to do that (if he hasn’t already).
Chris Almeida
Newark, CA
p.s. While looking at stuff to write this and not sound too stupid, I found that I could take online classes at Hillsdale and I will do that.
Thanks again!
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Dear Not at All Angry Reader,
Thank you for your kind words and the service of your family in the country’s defense. One must discover where one’s talents can help and where they would not. In my small case, I accept I would be a poor politician and a worse public official, but, in terms of commentary rather than historical work, had some role to play as a skeptic of the current progressive agenda.
It took about 6 days to weaponize the entire virus disaster to the point where Trump is now veritably running against the virus and presented with a political paradox that if he lockdowns the country much longer, he becomes Herbert Hoover who intentionally destroyed the economy; and yet if he opens it up, he is a murderer with blood on his hands. Stranger still, such politicization of the epidemic is so hotly denied by those who did it in order to project their culpability on others who call them out.
In the old days, conservatism and liberalism were sort of bookends; the former reflecting human nature, the latter a naive confidence that with enough money and kindness we could change human nature. Not now. Liberalism is dead, progressivism killed it and the hard left of the 1960s is in control. It is intolerant and has nursed an entire new generation on the campuses who are abjectly ignorant but strangely arrogant in such vacuity.
The epidemic brought this out, both the left’s intolerance of debate and dissent, and its inability to accept that science is a constantly changing and evolving discipline as more data correct, modify, adapt, prove, and reject prior theories, and is not a tool of supposedly sophisticated and university credentialed elite.
We should believe PhDs and MDs much of the time, but when they tell us that anti-viral masks are superfluous and drain resources from the medical professionals, then the masks are sort of helpful, and then that they should be worn by all, we can legitimately conclude that their certainty about the virus is misplaced.
Sincerely, Victor Hanson
Selma, CA
Discussion (18)
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Dr. Hanson: you are an inspiration.
Dear Victor Davis hanson I would appreciate your response to the following. Since 1988 the IPCC has been dedicated to “providing the world with objective, scientific information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of the risk of human-induced climate change, its natural, political, and economic impacts and risks, and possible response options”. Since then IPCC edicts about the “risk of human-induced climate change” have resulted in hundreds of billions spent annually attempting to reduce C02 emissions into the atmosphere. Large areas of the country have been devastated by the purported need to replace coal power with far more expensive and less reliable solar panels and windmills. Oil and gas fracking to increase fuel supply and pipelines to supply users continue to be opposed. Increasing car mileage standards and battery power continue to add to attempts to reduce CO2 emissions. However, despite those billions spent and the other devastating affects, carbon emissions have increased from 22,674 million tons (Mt) in 1990 to 37,077 Mt in 2017. China emissions have increased from 2,397 million in 1990 to 10,877 in 2017, 29% of total and they’ve no plans to stop current increases until 2030. The IPCC edicts have clearly failed to limit fossil emissions. Even more delinquent, the IPCC doesn’t seem to know or chooses to ignore the fact the 70% increase in fossil CO2 emissions hasn’t significantly increased CO2 in atmosphere. Plots show CO2 increased from 320 parts per million (PPM) in 1960 to 396 PPM in 2014. Yet the rate of change from 1970 to 1990 was essentially the same as from 1990 to 2014. Clearly the 70% increase in fossil CO2 emissions has had little effect on CO2 PPM. The whole basis for the fossil CO2 emission global warming concern is while CO2 allows the Sun to heat the earth if tends to block radiant heat transfer back to space. Climatologists have used computer models to conclude increased fossil CO2 emissions have 10 times the impact on global temperatures as increased heating from the Sun. However if a 70% increase in fossil CO2 emissions didn’t increase the rate at which atmospheric CO2 increased they could not be the reason for increasing global temperatures. That the only rational explanation was increasing global temperatures, driven by the sun, were increasing CO2 out gassing from ocean surface. That increasing global temperatures are the reason for increasing CO2 in atmosphere, not the result. That fossil CO2 emissions are not an existential threat. The sooner the IPCC and those advocating spending trillions on the green new deal recognize that reality the better.
Like the angry reader, let me use this venue, avenue or whatever, to voice my irritation with all this sense of some sort of righteousness in releasing prisoners to supposedly stop the spread of Covid-19. I fail to see any logic or reason for this phenomenon which seems to have gripped ever mayor and governor in a one-upmanship competition. It appears to me that this release is counter-intuitive as I fail to see how releasing the prisoners from a controlled environment will contribute to controlling the spread of the virus. If the authorities tested and identified and then sensibly separated the prisoners and kept them confined, it would better control the spread of this disease. And after doing this insensible thing, they are also chagrined that the leopards are not changing their spots! Really. All this hype, politics and showmanship is not and will not help. Releasing prisoners into the public is like aerial spraying gasoline over a burning village to put out the fire and saying gasoline is a liquid like water or some such nonsense...
I am absolutely delighted to read from the "angry reader" that Birx, Fauci, and Trump are reading Dr. Hanson's pieces. A while back I filled in a survey about how Trump could better combat the lamestream media and their lies and my suggestion was for him to read VDH's papers and consult with him on how to parse their inconsistencies.
Dittos! Professor Hansen, throughout this assault on very lives and the economy of our Republic, your steady wisdom has smoothed my mood somewhat, but the fear of the economic damage being inflicted upon us by "smart people" remains. I join with "Angry Reader 04-20-2020" in thanking you for putting yourself in harms way -- anybody who believes what we are doing "is a good thing" is already off their rocker, capable of anything including violence. Please be safe, and I do not mean from "the corona," sir. Sincerely, Joseph
Dr. Hanson: Be assured that this reader’s sentiments are shared by a vast number of people. You sir are awesome. Steve Frank
Dr. Hanson wrote: "Not now. Liberalism is dead, progressivism killed it and the hard left of the 1960s is in control. It is intolerant and has" nursed an entire new generation on the campuses who are abjectly ignorant but strangely arrogant in such vacuity. The 1960s was the beginning of the increase of ignorance in America, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act was either a catalyst that hastened said increase or was the cause. Please refer to an Imprimis article, "The Roots of Our Partisan Divide", February 2020 • Volume 49, Number 2 • by Christopher Caldwell. It is a well written piece, not to say that it is a masterpiece in academic research; no vacuity here.
Thank you Mr Hanson you are a great patriot. I love to here your stories about your Father telling you about his service in WW2 your family history the farm that has been in your family for generations about trying to instill values in your children in today’s world wish you would write a book about it. Hope you do some more lectures at Hillsdale
I am a happy reader and I gormandize your angry reader correspondences. They are fantastic.
Amen! Well said! By the “angry reader” and you Professor Hanson.
thank you Chris! finally, an angry reader i can agree with.
I could not agree more with Mr. Alameda. As a 4th generation Angeleno--both Jewish and gay--who is stupid enough to try and be a small time developer, I relish Mr. Hanson's wisdom and insights and look to him for any indication of hope about our state. His honesty and courage encourage me to keep fighting for my job and my views in the face of unwavering hostility and blind, hysterical hatred. I cannot think of any thinker who has had more profound or positive an impact in my life, and feel blessed that you are out there, risking everything, fighting for us. Adam Levine Los Angeles, CA
I was thinking about 'herd immunity' and I found myself considering another kind of 'herd immunity', that provided by intelligently adopting HABITS that would slow the spread of Wuhan. I personally feel that the wearing of a mast TO PROTECT OTHER PEOPLE is of great use, although I have no proof. Just seems like a good idea.
Dear Chris, thank you for your thoughts. Congratulations on getting a response from Dr. Hanson. interestingly, i just, being joyfully socially isolated, listened to Prof. Hanson's 'a war like no other' for the third (?) time while enjoying the sunshine in the back yard. Again learning something new, making connections to what has happened and what's going on now, and inspiring me to keep trying to reach the 'core truths/concepts' and convey these to others so eloquently. My goal has been to at least listen to all of his lectures at least 3 times. Anyway ... like you, my family on both sides were honorable soldiers and sailors during both wars. how i wish they were still alive to tell their stories at a time, like now, when i could really appreciate. Living in southern california ('coastal corridor) , the sanctuary state of pelosi, newsome, shiff, etc, i share your frustration and wish too that Victor could talk sense into the leadership here who 'don't have to experience the ramifications of their own ideology' . and, also, i very much hope Dr. Hanson makes himself available to our conservative leaders to give them 'deep' conviction that goes so far back into history. incredible how he continues to live in Selma amongst the gang fights and crumbling infrastructure. he will, sadly, very much need that wall around his house and those 7 (?) rescue dogs :-(. wishing you and Dr. Hanson, dave
As a person that has been thrust into leadership during several crises, I realize the Catch - 22 style of some people. A a result, I am a skeptic of any critic especially if he or she has not been a-wounded leader. Wounded by facing and failing to act perfectly.
It amuses me that people who got 60% for their university assignments become invincibly correct after graduation. It is probably the case that the greater their ability in their field the less convinced they are of their invincibility.
Old Vic has Trump-disease. "Angry Reader" who throws flowers at his feet....."It is perfect". The nightly sh't sow of lies and misdirection - it is China fault, its is WHO fault it is Neurotic Nancy or Cry'in Chuck, or Gov Snake or Fredo or Gov That Women, of Gov Doesn't Understand. Old man Vic chimes in..It is the "hard-left, it is the progressives, it Bernie it OC. We are in 1st place in terms of testing and will be off the charts in term of infections and deaths..o other country will be close......no one...but what the hell...MAGA. You jackasses must like to be gas-lighted over and over....or are dumb as stumps or have ossified brains and you, dear Vic, are a disgrace to the academy....
Dear Mr Hanson. I enjoy your commentaries. I've lived in Dos Palos and Firebaugh Calif as a youngster. I also served in the USAF in the 1970's. I appreciate you calling out the faux media when appropriate, which is often. The politicians on both sides of the aisles have for the most part been more then happy to pad their bank accounts while the masses suffer untold hardships. I hope folks stop buying Made in China goods going forward. And never forget what the derelict Chinese authorities help unleash on the world. Or do we throw up our hands and take a page out of The Squad's playbook, and just chalk it up to " some people did something", and move on. I hope voting in November is done honestly, so our current POTUS can rebuild our economy and spirits to where they were before 2020.