Why Wind Farms Attract So Much Misinformation and Conspiracy Theory

Okay...but the article has far too little emphasis on wind's problem with polarizing cultural branding. If you're just trying to sell wind at small scales, in deep-blue areas - that can be quite useful. But at real scales, nationally, when 1/2 the population votes for Team Red? D'oh, no. Wind advocates should be talking "like drilling oil wells, but with thousands of tons of steel, going straight up into the air, and a 200-ton generator on every one, pumping out umpteen gigawatts of power, and proving that America can still build man-sized stuff, and ...".

As someone who grew up in a right wing environment: It isn't all that complicated.

Windmills are read as clear and visible symbols of an "ideology" these people hate. You're a bigot who is already angry about a world that demands you to be more sensible about it? And now they are sensible about the environment and shove it into your face with a barrage of big moving structures? Outrageous!

People like these think that being sensible is the opposite of what a real man is about. Being a sensible male could even make you a suspect of the worst: you might be gay¹. So of course a visible sign that sensibility is winning is a threat.

Aside from the obvious question (How fragile is your identity as a man if you are afraid what it does to your male-ness if you show sensibility?) this guides us to a (IMO) more interesting one: Do they truly believe the stories they tell?

My conclusion is: most of them don't. They just have a string pre-existing existential urge to fight anything that would demand them to show sensibility and thus the story is just a post-hoc rationalization for a strong feeling they already have. It doesn't need to be true, it needs to feel true.

Since admitting the underlying fears would require them to also admit they are feeling uneasy, they need that kind story to be(come) true. But they don't really believe in it as a factual truth, more like you "believe" your sports team is going to win.

¹: obvious sarcasm, this mark is here to avoid ambiguity

>telephones spread diseases

Telephone networks begot the internet. The pair then engaged in an incestuous relationship from which sprang the smartphone. The smartphone, as it aged, grew into the most effective means of spreading mental illness ever recorded.

Maybe they were on to something in a crooked sort of way?

In Germany such nonsense has historically been propagated in the German press by Axel Springer, which until 2024 was majority controlled by the fossil-fuel focused private equity group KKR. They have the vast majority of their portfolio in fossil fuel interests.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Springer_SE

https://www.lobbycontrol.de/lobbyismus-und-klima/springer-ko...