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
If you want a Monty Python version of the 10:10 video, watch it here.
When you have watched it you will learn the difference between Monty Python comedy and a truly awful totally disgusting and utterly counterproductive video which shows the environmental lobby for what they are – fascists.
Official response from Sony:
“Thank you for your email concerning the video released by the 10:10 climate change campaign group. Sony has supported the 10:10 climate change campaign because we share its objective to reduce carbon emissions. However, we strongly condemn the “No Pressure” video which was conceived, produced and released by 10:10 entirely without the knowledge or involvement of Sony. The company considers the video to be ill-conceived and in extremely bad taste. We also believe the video risks undermining the work of the many thousands of members of the public, schools and universities, local authorities and many businesses, of which Sony is one, who support the long-term aims of the 10:10 movement and who are actively working towards the reduction of carbon emissions.
As a result we have taken the decision to disassociate ourselves from 10:10 at this time.
In our press statement we will be posting tomorrow morning we reaffirm our ongoing commitment to the reduction of global carbon emissions as part of our ‘Road to Zero’ environmental plan.”
First seen here:
http://ktwop.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/sony-disassociate-themselves-from-1010/
Glenn Beck did a short segment on the video. He was not impressed.
I just caught the last few seconds.
They have now posted what I would call a proper apology (nothing like the original ‘la di da’, Annie Hall version) but it looks like it was much too late for the majority of their corporate sponsors. O2 is the only one still showing on their ‘partners’ page.
Other partners have also disappeared from the list.
Entering the Parody Zone:
The Early 21st Century Classics in Ideological Environmentalism Humor.
Episode #2 – From old Eugenie, Franny, Daniel, Lizzie and the whole 10:10 team
Exiting the Parody Zone.
John
Notice how all of the people being murdered in this video are white? 93% of the total human population is not white, and yet every person in this video is white. Not only are the creators of this video anti-human, they are anti-white racists.
Binny said October 5, 2010 at 1:24 am
The white/non-white population figures tend to be nebulous. This National Policy Institute study says the white population will plummet to single digits by 2060, 9.76%, from a high point of 27.98% in 1950.
“White” often gets treated like the paint color, add anything in and it ceases being really white. As the lore of the land goes, the “drop of blood” standard was used by slave owners, nowadays it inflates the “minority” statistics. You’re one-sixteenth Sioux, mark the “Native American” check box. Your great-great-grandmother was black, you must use the African-American (black non-Latin) box.
The reality is, there’s hardly anyone alive who’s really white. There’s a few geographically isolated pockets that might be able to claim that. Possibly there are some people who only have “white” genes, those common to all or only from those providing “white”-specific traits (whatever those are). If so, it’s virtually certain that’s only due to non-white genes getting filtered out over time. Research shows everyone alive had a common ancestor, one person from whom everyone alive is a descendant. As reported here, they likely came from East Asia. See also here, and this page summarizes and links together a lot of work. Figuring in human migration, travel, resultant racial mixing, this common ancestor may have lived 7000 years ago, or perhaps only 1000 years ago, likely around the 3000 year mark.
The upshot is, at some point “white” becomes a self-identification. By “drop of blood” there isn’t a white person on the planet. Perhaps with all the visual and written evidence one has on their ancestors there are only “white” features noted, thus they identify themselves as white. But in the fine print, “white” does not exist. To toss it out there as an example, a Jewish ancestor somewhere in the family tree is fairly common among white people. Except for a few converts, who may have had their own Jewish ancestors, “Jew” is an ancient racial grouping. And one with considerable noted African heritage.
As to the video, well, they did say it was only intended for UK audiences. What you think you perceive could just be a quirk based on the UK’s racial proportions.