Got an angry email recently from a reader who didn’t like being told the truth about climate change (the latest U.S. example of which involves raging California wildfires that have now melded into the largest conflaguration in the state's history, growing to the size of metro Los Angeles). .

Here’s the ‘toon:

https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/c434436046ef1aef8e70ecb6d5675f6cc403ab07/c=60-0-3724-2755/local/-/media/2018/08/06/Phoenix/Phoenix/636691438048308620-Benson-Cooler-Place-Aug-8-2018.jpg?width=680&height=510&fit=crop
_____


And here’s the complainer’s reaction:

“Great self-portrait today. It depicts you well.as an ‘Angry Man!’“
_____


My reply:

“You’re simply angry at me for not doodling your political views for you. I go after you mercilessly with cartoons. Just think how bad folks have it in California with human-exacerbated climate change.

“Thank you and have a nice day.”
_____


Complaining reader’s response:

“OH Steve, I’m not angry at you,.. I just laugh over you. Such an Idiot you are!

“Forests that have been growing for 100-200-500 years, OR MORE, are now burning, because of MAN?

“What about all these Climate Change also???

https://www.infoplease.com/world/fires-and-explosions/worst-us-forest-fires

“And you’re angry, cuz not everybody agrees with YOU! But you are able to get that lil piece of Bird Cage Liner every week, to make you feel important, and make a statement. You should be happy, somebody actually paid attention to your drawing.

“And YOU DON’T KNOW my Political Views. I just know yours. YOU are the Angry White MAN!”
_____



My reply:

“Of course you’re angry. That’s why you have now written me [twice] . . . . And now you’re calling me names. Ooooooooh. More anger.”


--Complainer’s response:

“Wow Man

“You are the one provoking the anger [your words] in others, via your drawings. To me that would say you are the angry one, because you don’t like the current political policy. Yet you have the platform to express your anger, to the public.
Even with the small stipend I’m sure it pays you. BUT money is not you are motivating factor I’m sure. You are JUST an Angry White Man. Glad you aren’t a COP anymore…You would be dangerous to the public welfare

“BUT I enjoy the banter. BUT I won’t bug you anymore. You can’t HANDLE the TRUTH!

“Have a good life, watch your blood pressure Anger Kills.”
_____


My reply:

“Returned to sender”

[Note: And subsequently junk-mailed]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2018 06:02PM by steve benson.

Isn't funny how he compares 1800's "forest fires" with today's, forgetting that today we have air tankers/water-dropping helicopters (they didn't then); we have well-trained, well-equipped firefighters (they didn't then); we have trucks that can get to remote locations quickly (they didn't then), etc.

And that he doesn't notice that the list HE provided has about 5 entries before 1900, about 15 between 1900 and 2000, and about twenty in just the last 18 years, many of which were, at their time, "the worst ever."

So, from HIS link: many more fires more recently, many more "record" fires recently, and all that despite our superior technology, training, and manpower.

You should have told him thanks for the link, since it proved you were right...:)

. . . its size, as noted in the OP, being equal to the modern LA metro area.

"Yeah, but what about those forest fires in the 1800s?"

The complainer is a relic of the 1800s.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2018 10:26PM by steve benson.

“People use statistics like a drunk uses a lamp post – – for support, rather than illumination.“



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2018 11:29PM by steve benson.

Whataboutism again.

Love the 'toon Steve!

That's a great cartoon, and very true. But I don't think people are permanently fleeing Southern Cali because of the fires. There is another reason, a really big reason, the elephant in the room...

But for everyone's safe and health lets hope that the fires can be put out soon.

Hi Ezra,

Most of the fires are in the north, not the south, of California. And perhaps contrary to your expectations, they were not started by communists or even fellow travelers.

On your other point, people are not fleeing California. Since 2010 net inflows have averaged 330,000 per year. In other words, the equivalent of the state of Utah upped and moved to California in the space of a decade. That makes the state one of the most attractive in the country.

But putting that aside, yes the cartoon was good.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2018 06:22PM by Lot's Wife.

Aw, you beat me to it, oh-pillar-of-saltiness! :)