Guest post by Thomas Fuller
Well, with the calming passage of 24 hours, let’s take another look at the 10:10 video showing the splatterfest of gore as skeptics play the more volatile roles from the worst portions of the movie ‘Scanners.’
It’s still disgusting.
I spent four years in the Navy and have seen a lot. The film did not upset me physically or emotionally. My reaction was mental (Cue Michael Tobis: “See? Fuller’s going mental…”)
What disgusts me first is its target. The video is meant for the young. Young people get blown up by a calm and engaged teacher in the first scene, and music and sports and film figures appealing to the young are both victims and perpetrators throughout.
Our reaction is irrelevant. They are not talking to us. They are talking to our children.
What are they saying? That it’s okay to ostracize, bully and dismiss those who don’t agree that climate change is uber alles (Oops! Godwin alert, Godwin alert) and that skeptics or the children of skeptics are fair game for… whatever.
As there is no real attempt at humour in the video, there’s no point in pretending it’s a parody. It’s instructional. It’s not even aimed at helping children work towards reducing emissions. It’s about helping children take aim at those who do not.
This is worse than Orwellian, although Eric Blair would certainly understand the meaning behind this message. And I don’t want to (and internet traditions would forbid me in any case) link this to the propaganda tactics of World War II. So somewhere in between those two, there is a special place in hell reserved for those whose intent it is to legitimize the cruelty of children towards each other based on what has evidently become a religious belief. And I hope that none of the film’s makers reaches that special place ahead of their allotted timespan–but I hope they get there.
Joe Romm and Bill McKibben have already announced they are ‘Shocked! Shocked!’ that gambling is going on in their casino and that their perpetual campaign of invective and calumny has produced people who actually believe them and hate skeptics. So I guess it’s no harm, no foul. Just as it was not their fault when a disturbed environmentalist took hostages at the Discover Channel headquarters, just as when the WWF made an ad showing planes flying into New York skyscrapers, just as when a Greenpeace blogger told skeptics the world over that ‘we know where you live.’ And as Anthony Watts knows full well, they also know where you work. But none of this is the fault of those who whip up the frenzy and the furor of those stupid enough to believe their hyperbole, enough to do something vicious, cruel, stupid or illegal.
So I guess I can’t blame hysterics like Romm and McKibben, who spend their days babbling about hell and high water and related mystical miseries, for any of the troubles we’ve seen. Except for the kids who will be downloading that video tonight. Both William Golding (Lord of the Flies) and J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan) knew full well that children need no help in being cruel. But this gives them license and legitimacy. And for that, Joe and Bill, I do hold you responsible. You sent the message first–it took years for 10:10 to make it explicit.
Thomas Fuller http://www.redbubble.com/people/hfuller
Thomas Fuller href=”http://www.redbubble.com/people/hfuller
They showed who they really are much more graphically than we ever could. So thanks for their honesty… it saved us lots of work.
The push by the climate groups in the last few decades to gain political and economic control which can so severely affect living standards has added an extra layer of believability in the fascist message of this kind of video. England and most of Europe have already had green energy and carbon initiatives involuntarily forced on them. In the US we are expecting this to happen shortly with the EPA’s forcible and involuntary regulation of CO2 and removal of incandescent bulbs. This may play well with the climate control groups but it is not going to go over easily at all in the US where individual freedom to decide a course of action or to have a choice in desired products tends to be sacrosanct. Considering the kinds of things already in the climate control pipeline, why would anyone not think that this video would back up anti-climate fears at a personal level.
This is clearly a major stuff up by the warmists, but I’m beginning to wonder about Richard Curtis. Is it not conceivable than he is actually on our side, and has produced this vile piece of trash to illustrate just what obscene lengths the eco-totalitarians will tolerate.
Surely he was wanting to see how far he could go for just one person to say “hey, you can’t do this, this makes us look like the Khymer Rouge”. But no, these eco-warriors sat through the pitch, the mock ups, the rushes and the previews, and they all thought it was a great idea.
Very revealing as to the mindset involved, I suggest. Thanks Richard, you really showed them up!
Tom
Like you I am a ex tar: different navy of course.
I simply don’t know what to make of this.
As a sort of second career I have been writing scripts all my life and even directing films and I still don’t what this is about.
Technically they must have spent a fortune which could have been done for a fraction of the price.
But what is it they are trying to say? Apart from an addiction to SFX instead of a proper storyline. Even bad propaganda, sorry when I worked for the BBC they were called information films, need a storyline not some kind of Awful Warning like this.
That is for sandwich board men: the End is Nigh and such like.
Frankly I cannot get terribly upset about exploding people even children on screen, it is fantasy even if it is in appallingly bad taste. Lots of people will attack me for that no doubt: think of the children etc. But within limits, which this exceeds, children do love gruesome tales. So do adults: let the flesh creep. Provided good wins over evil in the end of course.
So in this where is the good?
I can also understand, being British and having written many scripts for UK comedy shows, why these people might have thought it was funny.
It isn’t of course, correctly handled it could have been both funny and driven home a point. As it is does neither and offends many people, and I find the apology for doing this incredibly and pompously self righteous.
So call me baffled, bemused and ready for a home for the bewildered.
Kindest Regards
jeremy of W.A. says: October 1, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Go and view Monty Python and the holy Grail. Look up Satire in the dictionary. Then take a course in being British (N.B. work very hard on the Irony / Sarcasm section)Finally review the video again and posit a new opinion.I’m not in the least surprised that the majority of Warmists who have a problem with this are American, as are the majority of Climate Realists.It’s a cultural thing.
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Well Jeremy of W.A. I am not so sure about the cultural thing. I enjoy (and understand) the ironic humour of British comedy – watched and enjoyed only last night a re-run of Blackadder – the final of the WW1 series when Darling was forced by the general to join Blackadder and Baldric in ‘going over the top’. This video is completely different. If this was a serious attempt to persuade people to cut co2 emissions, forget the comedic connection. Even if you are British.
The key point reiterated in all three segments was that the perpetrators exonerated themselves from responsibility for their actions knowing full well that they could eliminate the dissenters at a touch of a button – ‘no pressure – your choice’ and then went on to push the button and continue the discourse as though nothing of any moment had happened. Nothing like (say) the general who genuinely believed that Darling wanted to do his duty above all else an go over the top with Blackadder even though the general excused himself from doing the same on the grounds of his advanced years. (Bl—dy old bluff and gormless hypocrite that he was!
You can’t get away from the message in this video. And I have to conclude that the message was genuine. But it backfired. The video should assist the sceptic’s cause – hugely!
Doug
They are crazy. This is, of course, wishful thinking.
Humor would have a far different tone to normal people.
Well said Thomas.
This stuff is aimed at children. And echoing Steve it IS hate speech.
I think it may be time for Franny Armstrong to appear on ” Farm Films -Celebrity Blow-Up!”
C,mon Franny! Get your voice even more shrill! C’mon Franny, you can do it!
YEEE HA! She blowed up! She blowed up REAL GOOD!
Until next time,
may the good Lord take a likin’ to ya and blow ya up REAL GOOD!
a jones says:
October 1, 2010 at 10:28 pm
It isn’t of course, correctly handled it could have been both funny and driven home a point. As it is does neither and offends many people, and I find the apology for doing this incredibly and pompously self righteous.
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It is none of the above. It is crap. No matter how you label it.
Yah there is some artistic integrity with the production and the special effects.
But it ends there.
There is an Orwellian sickening undercurrent below it all.
And THAT is the reason so many reasonable people are up at arms.
I can not tell you how angry and defensive this video makes me. Good thing I will not meet up with any of the production staff any time soon LOL.
-Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
This has no redeeming value. It is certainly no Monty Python – which are funny when they are (a) understandable and (b) don’t go on too long.
This piece of propaganda reflects the intolerant attitudes of those who are intent on telling us what to do. In this regard, it is the mirror image of what goes on at Climate Progress courtesy of Joe Romm.
Whether or not the clip was aimed at children, the potential for this kind of propaganda to be forced on our kids and grand kids is very serious. I believe our public schools are vulnerable to political progressives and their distorted views. The way I suggest we fight back is to support homeschooling and other forms of educational alternatives that reduce central control over public education. Somehow we’ve allowed the progressives to infiltrate the US public education establishment and our children are being fed this kind of garbage on a regular basis. In the end, I think these bas***ds will fail because their views are far outside the sphere of common sense that God gave human beings. Perhaps in time genetic engineering will allow simians to read and write and the progressives can force feed the monkeys their drivel.
Kan says
I thought at first it was just over the top British humor as well. Then I read the interviews of the cast, and the producers.
Actually I’m very interested in the cast interviews. Unfortunately It’s been blocked on Youtube. Do you have a free link I can view?
Did they interview the script writer as well? If so, what comments were made?
Well, look at the bright side, now people can know how they really feel about dissenting opinion. In a nutshell, “Obey or die.”
Elsewhere, a fitting example of the UHI effect on steroids. The Vdara “Death Ray” Hotel.
Melts plastic, drives people away from the pool, can probably even cook pop corn if you set it up right.
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/las-vegas-hotel-pool-sunlight-swimming-tourists/story?id=11739234
evanmjones says:
October 1, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Yup, parts is parts.
As Popeye would say “Well, blow me down”.
Tangential to my prior post, the last time I saw Jon Stewart curse so much was in his Climategate segment:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-december-1-2009/scientists-hide-global-warming-data
Go and view Monty Python and the holy Grail. Look up Satire in the dictionary. Then take a course in being British (N.B. work very hard on the Irony / Sarcasm section)
Finally review the video again and posit a new opinion.
I’m averting my eyes, O Lord.
I can only agree with Thomas Fuller. This is not satire, it is shameless hate propaganda. To even suggest it has any artistic or humorous value, demeans the hundreds of fine satirical works of literature, right back to Aristophanes. It is not the violence per say, it is the underlying message of permission to attack those who disagree with you or are different from you, that is offensive to me. To use children in this way is simply non sexual child pornography. (Someone else came up with that in another thread. I have shameless stolen it.)
Oh spare me these fake prudish Victorian attitudes that have suddenly appeared due to it coming from “the other side” and seems to be a stick to beat them with.
Andy
just showed it to my 18 yr old son, slightly amused, but thought it was sick. Whereas I found it humourous.
And no, it does not show the “real” plans of the left, just like Delingpole does not show the “real” plans of the right.
funny, yeah… when I see children blown to bloody bits in a classroom the first thing I do is giggle like a little schoolgirl.
no shame, or no children. sick
that one’s for you David G. commenting on the Aussie dime.
still pissed
It is satire – very poorly done, but satire none-the-less
I also bet that most young kids love it, like “Sean of the Undead” or similar. My children laughed themselves stupid, without believing one single syllable of it
Yankeeland is also known as an irony-free zone, with some justification. I have quite a few US colleagues – knowledgeable, clever, sharp but with their humour I always feel there is a bit missing (or as we Aussies say, a few bricks short of a full load). There is definitely a dead zone in there, a vaguely uncomfortable feeling. And so it is with the obtuse reactions shown in most of the above posts
Ask children if the old and brilliant Bugs Bunny cartoon series ever induced them to go on a murderous rampage, or if they just laughed themselves silly. This is not conceptually different – how many young children have any control over, or even care, how much CO2 they poop?
Oh spare me these fake prudish Victorian attitudes that have suddenly appeared due to it coming from “the other side” and seems to be a stick to beat them with.
Andy
Hey Andy (if that is your real name) show me a comparison piece from the skeptic side and I’ll listen. Until you do you’re no different than the people who put out this crap. Sick
The Killing Fields, Rwanda, Kristallnacht, KKK lynchings, Ireland, Bosnia, Spanish Civil War, American Civil War, etc etc etc. Not all “wars” are fought between countries. You *really* do not want to start down this path. There are evils which lurk within that must not be provoked.
“Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it… All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children.”
George Orwell – 1984
And this video says, join the party, become a member. As said before, 1984 is a warning, not a manual.
So… what exactly is prudish about detesting what is essentially a vicarious snuff flick?