Janne M. Korhonen
This reminded me of a striking observation I did when going through archives once. A notorious ecofascist Pentti Linkola (1932-2020) used to be the darling of Finnish conservative press. Why? I believe because no one was better at discrediting ALL #environmentalism. Just had to let him speak.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:d67f4d5rb5uevntapqizkhas/post/3mhazlknbbk2j

Pentti Linkola - Wikipedia
Mar 17 at 1:18pmWeb
Show threadJanne M. KorhonenMar 17
I was going through the 1970-1999 archives of the premier Finnish weekly Suomen Kuvalehti - which remains quite conservative and used to be even more so - for unrelated reason, so this is just a preliminary observation. But. There was maybe *one* interview of another environmentalist.
Show threadJanne M. KorhonenMar 17
Whereas Linkola was interviewed regularly, even several times per year. Now he was an "interesting" character too, making a living as a fisherman in an isolated cabin. But I posit he was also the perfect interviewee whenever anyone wanted to show that environmentalism is batshit insane extremism.
Show threadJanne M. KorhonenMar 17
Because you could be guaranteed to get gems like "the only thing Hitler did wrong was that he didn't kill enough people" or "machine gun is one of the best inventions ever". I can tell that even I was prone to thinking that environmentalists == nutty ecofascists when I was young.
Show threadJanne M. KorhonenMar 17
I don't know if there is research about this somewhere, or if this phenomenon has been confirmed (or disconfirmed) elsewhere. But I think the circumstantial evidence of conservative media loving misanthropic nutters like Linkola while ignoring sensible voices is, at least, intriguing.
Show threadBumblebikeMar 17
There’s definitely been work done, though most of it in an American context. Leiserowitz, A. (2014). The mutual reinforcement of media selectivity and effects: Testing the reinforcing spirals framework in the context of global warming is one to start.