For some reason, many intellectuals who identify as philosophical skeptics embrace large chunks of climate dogma without critical examination. Steven Pinker is part of the progressive clan, and shares their blind spot, but speaks wisely in a recent article about the precarious balance between reason and intolerance these days. Some excerpts in italics with my bolds show his keen grasp of many aspects of the problems in contemporary discourse, even while he nods superficially to the climate consensus. His article at Skeptic.com is Why We Are Not Living in a Post-Truth Era: An (Unnecessary) Defense of Reason and a (Necessary) Defense of Universities’ Role in Advancing it.
Humans Are Rational Beings
In the first part Pinker does a good job clearing away several arguments that humans are not primarily rational anyway. For example, he summarizes:
So if anyone tries to excuse irrationality and dogma by pointing a finger at…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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