Thursday, September 24, 2009

Debunking the Debunking

environmentalism, global warming, climate change, the story of stuff, right, indoctrination, communism, socialism,
If you're like me, and have no real concern for the state of your heart or brain cells, you spend a lot time on conservative sites/blogs. Which means you've seen a lot of hysterical demagoguery concerning The Story of Stuff.

Basically, The Story of Stuff is a 20 minute video on the effects of human consumption, told in a child-friendly format. Of course, the right views this as "indoctrination" into communism by the left. Because we're all communists and we hate stuff. In fact, I don't even have stuff at my house. I don't even have a house. Good little communist that I am, I live in a field and eat off the land. Which makes it a little hard to explain this blog, but as a communist, I don't actually have to explain things.

What I can't figure out is, what parent wouldn't like to hear a little less "Mommy/Daddy/Whatever- buy me that! And that! And that, too!" As [redacted] pointed out, understanding that there is no cellphone fairy who magically provides batteries that never drain or die, and no magic involved in cell towers, and what all exactly is behind all of our "stuff" is apparently INDOCTRINATION now.

If the little boy's reaction in the New York Times' article is typical, The Story of Stuff is an excellent video.


And many children who watch it take it to heart: riding in the car one day with his parents in Tacoma, Wash., Rafael de la Torre Batker, 9, was worried about whether it would be bad for the planet if he got a new set of Legos.


“When driving by a big-box store, you could see he was struggling with it,” his father, David Batker, said. But then Rafael said, “It’s O.K. if I have Legos because I’m going to keep them for a very long time,” Mr. Batker recalled.



Exactly, Rafael. That isn't just environmental good sense, that's economic good sense, too. Instead of 100 cheap plastic toys (imported from China, no less), get one great toy you'll play with for years.

Now why is the right opposed to that kind of thinking?

5 comments:

  1. I don't have stuff either. The world that we see is actually a computer-simulated virtual reality and our bodies are actually encapsulated within pod-thingies, where our body heat is used as a power source by evil machines It is not the year 2009, but rather, The Future.

    "Stuff" is so 2000s.

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  2. It's been a while since I saw the SoS, but I see, to recall that the woman doing the presenting suggested that there were a lot of toxins in breast milk (she reiterated the 'Breast is Best, but the point remained) and also in our pillows.

    Perhaps the right see this an environmental scare-mongering.

    You have to admit, there are quite a few tofu-eating lefties who delight in telling us who shit humans are for the planet (I mean, I know it's true, but I don't necessarily want to hear it when I'm excited about getting my new iPhone, you know?).

    What the SoS presents is the need for us to move out of the traditional capitalist way of thinking that always assumes a large, uneducated and easily exploited working class that supports the rich, western nations. We need to get more into local energy and food production along with a reduction in overall consumption.

    This can only be achieved by encouraging the 'creative class' to innovate new markets for the zero-carbon economy to grow into and, forgive my broad-brush bigotry; lefties are more creative.

    /2 cents

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  3. // Now why is the right opposed to that kind of thinking? \\

    Because it’s intrinsic to being a right-winger that you must be silly, irrational and demagogue … —esque.

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  4. Not watched the video yet, but I love the idea. We need more simple, easy to understand information about the effects we have on the environment, and I can understand that this subject would certainly get the kids interested (I would have been... but then again, I was raised by enviromentalists)

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  5. Why is the right opposed to that kind of thinking?

    Simple. The right is led by the people who own the big companies that produce all the cheap use-n-discard crap that the little ndoctrinated children will no longer be buying. The right-wing money-makers live off of people buying a lot of stuff, otherwise they couldn't buy their own even more expensive stuff. So if little Timmy wants to settle for only two quality toys rather than a hundred crap-toys they lose money. Therefore, spend, spend, spend, spend your lovely money (on us - preferably).

    Isn't it simple?

    ReplyDelete

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