GOLDBERG: [Snip]In the harsh totalitarianisms like Stalinism and Nazism, that kind of thing, children were encouraged to inform and to spy on their parents. They made heroes of the state out of children who turned their parents in to have them executed. Now obviously nothing like that is going to happen here. At least, I hope not. But if you -- since your kid goes to a typical school in this country, your kid is encouraged to sort of rat out his parents about whether or not they`re recycling at home.Allright, now here's some more recent idiocy from Beck (via Ed Brayton)
[snip]
BECK: But not through government. And yet I watch these TV commercials where, all of them, for these SUVs, these green SUVs, are all the children saying, "I don`t know if I can ride in that car, mom. I don`t want to be dropped off in that car." They`re using the children almost to shame the parents into it. I mean, it`s the same kind of thing, isn`t it?
GOLDBERG: You should find some clips from the old cartoon "Captain Planet." It was just relentless propagandizing of children where the villains ere all these cartoonish -- literally cartoonish -- corporate CEOs who wanted to destroy the environment. And all that -- the only thing that could save the world was if all the children from all over the world got together and formed this super hero to save the planet.
It was pure environmental propaganda. But you find that kind of thing all over the place.
And what we're trying to do is to erase all of the carbon offsets for the Democratic party. What we'd like to do is we would like to raise 70 million pounds of carbon. Now, this is going to take a Herculean effort, it really is. I don't know if we can do it. We can't mandate it. I can't say, hey, you've got to do this as a listener. What I'm just, I'm asking you to participate because it's for the children. You go to the website. Now, how many, how many extra miles can you pledge? Can you drive five extra miles a day? Can you take the long way home, the long way to work? Can you just warm up your car? I know it's August. Can you cool down your car? Can you get up like you do in the winter and just start your car? You know, it's hot or it's tepid when I get into my car. I would like it to be ice cold. Can you get up, start your car 15 minutes early and just let it run so it cools down. You know what I'm saying? Do your part. It's for the children. Why do you not care about our planet? Can you give me an extra day of increased garbage, maybe two, maybe three? Can you throw away some stuff that you don't really need to throw away? Can you not recycle? Can you throw your cans into the nonrecycling bin just for this week?...One of Brayton's commenters asked, 'When did Glen Beck become one of the bad guys from "Captain Planet"?'
Can you turn your thermostat down unnecessarily? I know you probably like it at a nice 70 degrees, maybe 72 degrees. Can you turn it down to 68 just this week. Can you take an extra long shower. How many loads of laundry can you do? Can you pledge just a few extra minutes in the dryer, after your clothes are dry, just let it go a couple of extra minutes. Do you have any fluorescent light bulbs? Can you would you pledge, would you pledge just to replace one of your fluorescent light bulbs with an incandescent light bulb today, just one. That's all we're asking, just one. We're trying to raise 70 million pounds of carbon and it's not going to be easy.
Heck, I thought Captain Planet was a lame cartoon myself - although unlike Goldberg, I wasn't surprised that a cartoon villain would be cartoonish - but Beck is a living cartoon himself. No wonder Beck doesn't like Captain Planet - he's a frickin' Captain Planet villain.
4 comments:
Of course they miss the point that "super heroe" characters have always been vehicles of propaganda. Super Man, Captain America, Wonder Woman etc.
What do they have against propaganda anyway. After all, they are professionals.
HG,
Here is an intelligent smackdown on Beck's idiotic rant from a libertarian:
http://www.positiveliberty.com/2008/08/economic-idiot-of-the-month-glenn-beck.html
Here is an excerpt:
Here’s why this really bugs me. The vile pedants like Beck act as though the Democrats will be death to the economy, while the Republicans are the ones who really understand proper economics, and thus will set America on the path to prosperity. But by saying ridiculous things like this, he shows his complete ignorance of economics–an ignorance shared by the majority of Republicans.
Repeat after me: Encouraging waste of resources makes people poorer. Encouraging negative externalities encourages waste of resources, therefore making people poorer.
Yes, Beck–who apparently was a miracle baby, born without a brain but still able to talk–is encouraging Americans to engage in economic behavior that will actually make them worse off. And put that way, he doesn’t sound that much different from a Democrat.
Alan
P.S. - Due to insane business, I have not been reading blogs regulary, but I do manage to catch up every once in a while and I think I have read all your posts.
The problem with Hanley's post is that it assumes Beck to be more rational than he actually is. Beck isn't encouraging carbon onsets for economic reasons: that would be idiotic, yet still rational.
Beck's reasoning is thus:
Democrats are totalitarian liberal fascists. They are using carbon offsets as propaganda to get in power and do totalitarian things. Therefore, if Beck and his listeners can offset the offsets then Democrats won't be able to get into power.
Yes, he really is that stupid.
What's the problem with their going green? Well, the Democrats know all of these things are pointless gestures, but they're using them to try and convince voters that they love the earth more than Republicans. If this works they will put into place policies that will hurt our economy and cause real disaster--not the fraudulent type they constantly whine about.
What can you to help? Take part in our carbon ONset program. We are asking you to make just a few small sacrifices to completely wipe out any potential energy savings the Democrats claim credit for.
See, Beck doesn't even consider generating pollution or not generating pollution to have any effects at all ... it's all political show to him.
"Beck isn't encouraging carbon onsets for economic reasons"
To be clearer: Beck does consider keeping Democrats out of office a matter of economic necessity. But he doesn't consider carbon onsets as a means of generating positive economic benefit in response to the negative economic benefit of carbon offsets.
Post a Comment