why it’s so hard to argue with a famous crank

Christopher Monckton is a very busy and very powerful man according to himself and his fans. Apparently, the fellow is pretty much a living legend whose advice to world leaders helped shape England as we know it, and whose campaign against environmentalists and scientists sounding alarms about global warming will save global industry from the evil New World Order that seeks to enslave nations with environmental treaties. But it seems that for all his power and importance, “Lord” Monckton had time to respond to the professor who put together a very impressive presentation debunking his famous and oft cited arguments. With almost a hundred pages of questions, several insults towards Professor Abraham’s college, demands that every copy of Abraham’s presentation be removed, and a tidy sum donated to his charity of choice to atone for the grave sin of daring to doubt his speeches. Rarely have I seen an ego quite as massive and fragile as Monckton’s.

Now, there has been a response from Abraham, who revised a few minutes of his nearly hour long review of the claims laid out by Monckton, and believe it or not, the “Lord’s” sycophants, like Anthony Watts, are howling that changing a few slides is the equivalent of total capitulation. Meanwhile, the University of St. Thomas told the deniers to quit making ridiculous demands and back off unless they want to deal with its lawyers, refusing to bow to Monckton’s demands for censorship. There’s bound to be more to this drama of course, since what Monckton does best is to threaten and bully anyone who dares to challenge him. And actually, silencing every vocal critic is standard operating procedure for climate deniers, usually while they whine and moan about the pitfalls of censorship as soon as they find themselves on the receiving end of the same kind of treatment by a climate change blogger, and rush to their fainting couches, clutching their hearts in disbelief that no one on a green blog wants to hear their ranting and raving.

But there’s another interesting thing to consider about Monckton’s feud with Abraham. One of his questions is a classic trademark of a crank obsessed with credentials, titles, and degrees because he has none to speak of in the relevant field, and unable to make an argument from authority, tries to undermine his detractors…

Please provide a full academic resume. Though you have described yourself as a “professor” (3, 62) more than once in this presentation, are you in fact an associate professor?

Again, this is a classic crank defense. Hopefully, you noted the quotes around the title Lord in reference to our pedigreed and famous demagogue, and were wondering why they’re there. Well, that’s because he’s actually not a Lord and has never been one. In fact, in my understanding, he’s doing a somewhat rough equivalent of calling himself a Senator wherever he goes even though he was never even on a ballot, much less elected by anyone. By contrast, Abraham does teach students and has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. The degree of his professorship is a moot point, especially when what has to be noted is the evidence he presents against Monckton’s claims and our self-appointed Lord simply recycles the same arguments he always uses, even after they were already addressed in detail by Abraham. The professor put together a rebuttal, and instead of having a calm and reasoned debate, Monckton threw a childish temper tantrum and tried to browbeat his critic with an in depth investigation of “how much of a professor he is,” clearly unfamiliar with the American college system and acting out of pure rage. Then again, this is what cranks do: take criticism all too personally.

There’s no answer that Abraham can provide to satisfy the fiery egomaniac who has him in his sights. All that Monckton wants to do is take him down with some sort of ad hominem, or by discarding his credentials so he doesn’t have to actually address the substance of the rebuttal with anything new, then rush back to Watts and the other disseminators of climate denialism, and claim a victory over that rotten, no good engineer in league with the forces of eco-friendly evil. And no matter how far short Monckton falls of actually defending his case, a loyal army of fans is ready and willing to sing praises to him, especially should Abraham fail to miss even one question from the “Lord’s” list, or do something as wise as tell Monckton to quit bothering him and his bosses with asinine threats, which St. Thomas is more than prepared to handle.