Both liberals and conservatives arched their eyebrows the other day when The New York Times, ultra liberal, hired conservative essayist Bret Stephens from the Wall Street Journal, decidedly conservative.
No doubt Mr. Stephens’s somewhat surprising virulent and unrelenting opposition to the candidacy and the presidency of Donald Trump influenced the decision on both sides.
The inevitable followed.
Raging fires broke out, historic walls crumbled, emotional humans went berserk and the Times was flooded with subscription cancellations on Saturday minutes after Mr. Stephens’s maiden column — on climate change — appeared.
Nothing rankles the delicate certitude of bible-thumping environmentalists more than when one person, prominent or obscure, questions the floating orthodoxy of climate change.
If environmentalists were religious instead of anti-religious, the whole planet would be forced to go to church every Sunday — or risk being shot to death every morning when stepping away from their hearth.
Thou shalt believe, or thou shalt be driven to hell, privately, by Uber or Yellow Cab, whichever is closer.
Mr. Stephens, the clod, a former editor of the Jerusalem Post, should have known that the feelings of all readers of the Times, but especially the feelings of the Thou Shalt Believe environmental crowd, are tender.
Exchange your shoes for slippers when walking near them. Walk softly. Speak kindly. And slowly.
As the most fragile of creations by G-d – or whomever put environmentalists on earth – the ladies and gentlemen are accustomed to having people agree with them – because they are them, and that is that.
Mr. Stephens must have forgotten the First Commandment, Thou Shalt Face Opprobrium if Thou Questions Climate Change – which is about as settled as life on Mars.
Setting up his main point, Mr. Stephens said that a Pew survey last October showed a scant one-third of Americans care “a great deal” about climate change.
Then he hit his home run.
“Ordinary citizens have a right to be skeptical of overweening scientism,” Mr. Stephens wrote.
Offended Times’ readers, however, tagged him out sliding into home plate even though the ball went over the fence.
Will Mr. Stephens survive to write a second column?