After becoming the darling of the left with his long list of stark, never-Trump columns, writer Bret Stephens has become a sudden pariah among his newfound fans by writing a column that mildly questioned the validity of global warming. And now, after months of celebrating him as a “sensible” Republican, New York Times readers are canceling their subscriptions in droves over his “climate denying” article.
Because of the unhinged attack, Stephens noted that he is being reminded of just how filled with hate an intolerance the left really is.
Indeed, global warming fans have launched #ShowYourCancellation, a Twitter hashtag campaign to urge New York Times subscribers to dump the paper.
Stephens, an establishment Republican and a former Wall Street Journal writer, was hired by the New York Times after spending the past many months uncorking a wave of anti-Trump columns. But with his debut column for the “paper of record,” Stephens chided climate change believers for being so certain of their belief despite the lack of full scientific support for their religious-like global warming tenets.
In his column, Stephens said that “claiming total certainty about the science” of climate change and not taking the facts from both sides “traduces the spirit of science and creates openings for doubt whenever a climate claim proves wrong.”
But after the mild column debuted, a wave of hate rolled over both Stephens and the Times because the columnist dared to question climate change.
Liberals have called for the Times to fire Stephens over the “climate denying” column with a petition at Change.org that has already gained nearly 30,000 signers.
The petition charges that the paper itself has now somehow joined the ranks of “deniers”:
The hire of Mr. Stephens compromises The New York Times especially because the fossil fuel industry and its media echo chamber are spreading the lie that science continues to debate whether climate change is real, whether humans are causing it, and whether it has adverse impacts on America and the globe. The New York Times has now entered that echo chamber. The Times now legitimates the lie that human-caused climate change is a political opinion to be debated, when in reality human-caused climate change is a truth already discovered by scientific inquiry.
Along with the petition, a wave of tweets has inundated the paper with calls for the columnist to be fired in one hate-filled tweet after another.
One Twitter user told Stephens to “Go eat dog d***s,” while another claimed that Stephens is trending on Twitter because, he said, “You suck.”
Even other purported journalists are tweeting attacks on the Times and Stephens.
Liberal columnist Monica Potts, who writes for such outlets as Vogue, The Daily Beast, and the New York Times, called Stephens’ column “irresponsible”:
This is so irresponsible. For many readers, anything that comes out of the times has its authority. They don't know you hired an idiot.
— Monica Potts (@MonicaBPotts) April 28, 2017
Libby Watson, a staff writer for the liberal tech blog Gizmodo, also joined in the attacks by calling Stephens a “sh**head”:
@BretStephensNYT bret if you think that tweet was “nasty” i have some news for you: you’re a shithead. a crybaby lil fuckin weenie. a massive twat too
— libby watson (@libbycwatson) April 28, 2017
VICE.com writer Eve Peyser even said that Stephens’ column was causing her to “lose her mind”:
https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/858082367138877440
Finally, after being welcomed into their ranks for months of Trump-hate, Stephens himself is experiencing a volume of hate that serves as a reminder of just how unkind the left usually is:
After 20 months of being harangued by bullying Trump supporters, I'm reminded that the nasty left is no different. Perhaps worse. https://t.co/uQ2L5lox6e
— Bret Stephens (@BretStephensNYT) April 28, 2017
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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