The new inquisition: Leftist radical AGs seek to silence climate change realists

(Freedom.news) A little more than 530 years ago, circa 1478, the Spanish Inquisition began as an effort by a tyrannical king to silence any citizen who held views that did not align with those of the crown. Using the power of government the grand inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada, and his thugs actively pursued anyone who held religious, moral or scientific views that ran counter to the monarchy. “Heretics” were punished with prison terms, their property confiscated and their families fined. In the most severe cases, non-believers were tortured and executed.

As noted by Hans von Spakovsk, a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, one of the Spanish Inquisition’s most enduring atrocities was that it stifled free speech and thought, as well as crushed legitimate scientific debate throughout Spain, then a major power throughout the known world.

The treatment of only one set of scientific views as absolute, infallible and above reproach served to silence the most brilliant of scientific minds while quashing the development of new ideas and technological advances. As a result, “Spain became a scientific backwater,” von Spakovsk wrote.

Fast-forward to the 21^st century, and a new version of an old, bad idea, is being hatched, this time against climate realists who refuse to swallow the tripe that our modern existence is somehow permanently altering planetary ecosystems.

“Treating climate change as an absolute, unassailable fact, instead of what it is—an unproven, controversial scientific theory—a group of state attorneys general have announced that they will be targeting any companies that challenge the catastrophic climate change religion,” von Spakovsk noted.

At a March 29 press conference, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, an extremist, anti-business crackpot, announced, “The bottom line is simple: Climate change is real.” He went on to declare that any company that disagreed with this ‘conclusion’ is committing fraud by “lying,” before threatening to go after said companies “to the fullest extent of the law.”

Calling themselves “AGs United for Clean Power,” the coalition of 17 inquisitors consists of 15 state attorneys general (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington State), as well as the AG for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Sixteen of the seventeen members are Democrats, while the attorney general for the Virgin Islands, Claude Walker, is an independent.

All are threatening legal action and massive fines against anyone who denies their green religion, which is as unproven as the theory of evolution, whose disbelievers are probably next on the list of inquisitions. Never mind what this does to legitimate scientific debate, but these lunatics essentially just declared war on every industry and business in their respective states and territories. If you owned a business or industry in one of these states, especially one that (egads!) produced some level of waste, would you be thinking you’re in a friendlier or more hostile legal environment right about now?

This stuff is real, folks. “Schneiderman and Kamala Harris, representing New York and California, respectively, have already launched investigations into ExxonMobil for allegedly funding research that questioned climate change,” the Heritage expert noted. “Exxon emphatically denounced the accusations as false, pointing out that the investigation that ‘uncovered’ this research was funded by advocacy foundations that publicly support climate change activism.”

The inquisitor-puppeteer in all of this, former Vice President Al Gore – who has made a fortune peddling this unproven nonsense and who jets around the globe telling people to stop jetting around the globe – has become the modern-day Tomas de Torquemada.

As for free speech and debate, well, these inquisitors were having none of it. Schneiderman went so far as to declare that climate change ‘deniers’ are liars and committing fraud, therefore they have no First Amendment rights. Scary.

Mind you, this comes on top of a previous admission by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch that the Obama Justice Department is discussing the same thing – the possibility of pursuing legal action against climate change deniers. She also said she’s already “referred it to the FBI to consider whether or not it meets the criteria for which” federal law enforcement could take action. While he may have been respectful to his bosses’ face, here’s hoping FBI Director James Comey was secretly shaking his head in disbelief upon being asked to entertain such a nonsensical ranting from an obvious climate extremist, especially in light of investigating the much more serious – and real – crime of Hillary Clinton [allegedly] violating national security rules.

Fortunately there are other state attorneys general who recognize not only the idiocy of this campaign, but also the importance of speech and scientific debate. E. Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma AG, and Luther Strange, Alabama’s AG, are definitely not on board. Both, in a statement, said:

Reasonable minds can disagree about the science behind global warming, and disagree they do. This scientific and political debate is healthy, and it should be encouraged. It should not be silenced with threats of criminal prosecution by those who believe that their position is the only correct one and that all dissenting voices must therefore be intimidated and coerced into silence. It is inappropriate for State Attorneys General to use the power of their office to attempt to silence core political speech on one of the major policy debates of our time.

But the Left won’t be denied. What it can’t control through normal debate its adherents seek to achieve through bans, coercion and, when those fail, through brute force via government.

We, however, will not be silenced. Let the games begin.

See also:

The Daily Signal

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