“Let them eat kale!”: Appeals to class-based resentment in American conservative opposition to climate change solutions

Abstract How do conservative media commentators provoke public opposition to climate change solutions in the US? We provide evidence that appeals to class-based resentment against cultural elites are one prominent strategy to urge publics to reject climate mitigation strategies, particularly individual-level changes in diet and consumption. Analyzing media coverage of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from 1988–2021 across liberal, centrist, and conservative American outlets (N = 1788), we examine how commentators discuss the consumption of meat and animal products as contributors to climate change and dietary transition as a climate mitigation initiative. We find conservative rhetoric around this topic features class-based populism and ridicule of plant-based diets and vegetarianism as displays of cultural capital. Rather than relying on spreading misinformation or promoting scientific counter-claims, conservative commentators discredited these proposals by associating them with a rejected out-group, using moral and emotional language to stoke anger, resentment, but also humor. These findings suggest conservative rhetoric about dietary change as a climate solution appeals to class-based resentment, a strategy that may be becoming more prevalent as the Democratic Party becomes the party of highly-educated Americans. Our findings shed light on the important but often overlooked role of identity appeals in contemporary strategies of climate obstruction.