Life online is about to get even worse

No sooner had an inch or two of snow fallen on our upland areas last week than the climate-change Morlocks were out on social media, shrieking and bed-wetting themselves into a catatonic stupor. Nurse, nurse, bring the meds, quickly. ‘There! Told you!’ was the general gist. If it is snowing there cannot possibly be global warming. If one day it is a mite cold, the Earth cannot be heating up. That’s simple enough to understand, isn’t it, if you are an imbecile?

Subjected to even the mildest query many of these people immediately began to delingpole. That is, with great fury they started citing hugely eminent figures from the world of science who have proved their standpoint correct, such as Radu Ionesco, a reader in mental illness from the Central polytechnic of Chisinau who once wrote an article saying that polar bears were becoming extinct because there was too much ice around. Most of these people are on the political right, part of the ‘Everything They Tell You Is Lies’ brigade, and they were back again this week, transformed through some mysterious cybernetic process into experts on respiratory infections and the efficacy, or otherwise, of face masks in preventing the spread of disease. Pretty much the same people: climate change isn’t happening and masks are useless. Or worse than useless — actually a symbol of oppression by our overlords who may or may not have long flickering tongues and a range of optimal body temperatures.

There was of course a counter-attack from the deranged left, to the effect that people who don’t wear masks are fascists and that they should be worn everywhere, even when having sex with someone from whom you have acquired written consent. I am something of a centrist on masks. According to the magazine Nature, ‘science’ has concluded that masks are useful in both preventing transmission of Covid and catching it yourself.