BarbaraB politely points out that herding is evident in the debate over global warming, and that you cannot disagree with global warming alarmists without retribution, and that skepticism is justified.
The response is to denigrate the comment as trolling, with the threat to remove other comments that make similar observations — a form of retribution.
Whatever the accusation of trolling is actually supposed to mean, that response is a kind of ad hominem fallacy, which does nothing to address the legitimacy of the comment.
And notice that the reference to 'the mainstream position on climate science', in the response to BarbaraB's comment, is also a clear use of the ad populum fallacy — as if the mainstream position has been clearly established and is beyond dispute, and as if being mainstream somehow makes a particular position more convincing or impervious to criticism.
Now that is as clear an expression of herding as you can get — if you think holding a mainstream position makes you more reasonable and justified in a particular belief, you are confessing a profound inability to think.
See Charles MacKay's 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds', if you take comfort in being part of the mainstream.
https://www.skepticalscience.com/OISM-Petition-Project.htm
https://www.skepticalscience.com/OISM-Petition-Project.htm#107534
BarbaraB at 15:38 PM on 29 October, 2014
Just a psychologist so I'm sure I don't count here, but I do know something about people and the herd instinct which I think is working here to a large extent. There is also, I am not a theologist, some evidence of the sin of greed. So many billions of dollars changing hands over a theory, really just a theory which looks more like a religion since you can't oppose it without retribution. Wise men should be skeptical.
I am quite relaxed about the climate getting warmer, I like summer better than winter, don't you? The people with coastline properties are probably those terrible "rich" people anyway whom we have all been told are sucking on our vital juices for their own benefit. Terrible people.
Response:
[Dikran Marsupial] Welcome to SkS (psychologists are most welcome). Please take time to read the comments policy, SkS is intended to be a site for productive discussion of climate science and closely related topics, but it is not a forum for the sort of trolling that is all too common on climate blogs. Further comments of this nature will be deleted. If you disagree with the mainstream position on climate science, then I would encourage you to pick a specific argument (see the list of climate myths on the bar to the left) and explain your objection clearly. I'm sure you will find plenty of people here willing to discuss the science with you in a rational and friendly manner, provided that you behave in a similarly mature manner.
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