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
Just emailed the BBC to ask why it’s not made the news anywhere on their sites or transmissions, I don’t expect I’ll get a reply. Wonder why?
jeremy of W.A. – I don’t need lessons in being British, I have been all my life. I also love Monty Python and am old enough to remember it when it was first shown. But there is no comparison with this piece of filth.
I also accept that many kids see and play with far worse computer games every day. But again there is no comparison with them “having a laugh”, and being effectively told that disagreement with a fake religion means death….
I have complained to my MP, and asked if this is really what her party wants to be associated with, but on past experiences, I don’t expect much of a reply.
Got it, bite back with their own laws.
Use the new Harman “offensive” law
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1316837/Employers-face-equality-law-nightmare-Coalition-pushes-ahead-Harriet-Harmans-Act.html
Now that would be sweet justice
Oh and being English and a teacher I do have a problem with this film!
Anyone who doesn’t and professes to be a teacher should do some soul searching. Maybe you are not in the right profession.
Lets have a vote
A Joke
or
A Threat
Is the ‘Behind the scenes’ video available anywhere? There’s a bit with kids here – complete with a couple of chilling quotes – but I had the impression there was a longer version.
In a different context, the images of people blowing up in a bloody mess could be acceptable to the audience. A fictional horror, a comic horror, a sci-fi drama, whatever. But the context here completely scuttles their efforts to communicate a message.
The children are just innocent small people who have done nothing wrong. They disagreed but in our eyes there is nothing wrong about that. We don’t find blowing up innocents funny.
Imagine the context of the 10:10 film makers. In their eyes, the world is one united consensus of caring people who are being held back by a few who are so selfish, so ignorant, that their presence threatens all the peoples of the planet. It is soo frustrating trying to get through to these people, that well… we know you try but, wouldn’t it be funny if you know, you could just ‘get rid’ of them? With a button. Just like that.
The problem for 10:10 has got to be, most of the people reject that interpretation. Most people say, “you’re killing innocents for not believing your dogma”.
By making this they have shown how out of touch they are.
I’m getting to really like Mike Haseler’s posts. He has it right, as I do, that this is simply a publicity stunt that you have all fallen for. Why can you not all see that? I’m annoyed that you’ve all been suckered in.
So it’s ok to blow up kids now, or what?
Darn it, and I have just bought a refurbished flame thrower to help with the ice melting project. Don’t know if I can afford refurbished explosives too, and besides, last time I tried the refurbished explosives they didn’t work at all, very weird, something about being one time boomers or what ever, pfft, why resell em at all? o_O
The members of 10:10 are tax payer funded fantasists.
Franny Armstrong, 10:10 founder, said the shock tactics were justified. “We ‘killed’ five people to make No Pressure – a mere blip compared to the 300,000 real people who now die each year from climate change.”
QED
The facts of the matter are that millions die every year due to lack of clean drinking water and proper sanitation. A contributory factor to these deaths is the anount of funds diverted from overseas aids budgets into the fantasy of solving the made up problem of dangerous AGW.
Dr Jacob Bronowski’s passionate and moving defence of science.
Curiousgeorge says: October 2, 2010 at 3:31 am
Stand in your integrity and see what speaks to you.
Right through history, people have had experiences like yours. Challenge is not new, it’s just that the particular form each time is new.
“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.”
There is no new opinion to posit, the ghastly intent of this disgusting video is evident from any number of viewings. Any trace of irony – beyond it having the opposite effect to that intended – is absent. Trying to make comparisons with Monty Python or British style humour is ludicrous and shows a lack of any understanding of either.
Monty Python was surrealistic, it used parody, word-play, it took well-known (to the British) social conventions, institutions and taboos and turned them on their heads and caricatured and lampooned them.
In Monty Python style it would have been the teacher who exploded when she pressed the red button, for example. That would be the unexpected; the irony.
The 10:10 video does none of that. It presents those who disagree with the premise as less than Human, worthy of no consideration and thus justifies their execution by unpleasant means; just as heretics were gouged with red-hot pincers and burned at the stake in past times when the righteous declared them anathema and ex-communicant.
What I want to know is why in a Country where independent thought or causing offence is no longer permitted thanks to the previous Socialist regime and to start a joke with, “There was an Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman…” is sure to result in several squad cars-full of police calling round to take the citizen to task for “hate speech”, the perpetrators of this video are still at large.
Anybody got a box with a red button?
Andrew W says:
October 2, 2010 at 12:07 am
Andy does have a point about the genuineness of the screams of indignation and offense when so many of those doing the screaming are celebrating the videos immortality as a stick to beat warmists with, if the indignation was so important, wouldn’t those people prefer to see it forever gone?
No, because the video shows the true nature of what we are up against. At this point, I’d say it is the warmists who would most like to have it disappeared, as they indeed tried to, but they were too late. Now, all they can try to do is spin and damage control, but clearly that isn’t working either. LOL.
Ah at last the BBC have caught up! But interestingly they toned down the language they used to report it. Instead of killed or murdered they used exploded or dispatched. In all the tone of the reporting was very light on 10:10. Again I wonder why? As to us all being suckered in, well maybe we knew all along how violently radical the warmists would be, history repeating itself when it comes down to belief over reason. But it will be short lived, as reason will prevail.
Well, if climate change death is as real as claimed, then by making that film, with professional actors, crew, lights, equipment, etc. they will have produced CO2 and consumed resources, thus killing some real people somewhere. If not killing, maybe chopping off a few limbs here and there.
It is that old excuse; we can consume because we are doing it for a better cause, whilst you people are only consuming due to selfish greed.
Frankly, if you watch “Psychoville”, you can see this is just cutting edge humour, bordering offensive to funny, but that’s not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that 10:10 are championing a falsehood.
The scary thing is how would these idiots run things if they got into power. I mean, even Mussolini did useful things. But these idiots… sheesh.
Maybe the best reply to someone who calls people “denier” is to call them “idiot”.
BBC finally get around to mentioing the story… must have been a busy news day yesterday!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11458726
In some comments elsewhere, a figure of 400,000 British pounds is being suggested as the cost of making this film — I can only hope that the price to its makers turns out to be much higher in terms of lost funding, sponsorship withdrawal, and so on.
there was a new law came in friday its time to use that law to sue the makers of this film you have the right to sue if you are affended by this film its time to take them down and hurt them where it hurts in the green pigy bank
And now for something completely different.
Well it’s not completely different, but different enough, without being too different as that’d be strange.
I found this fine example of (C)AGW arithmetic presented on a locally-produced show, as would be presented to impressionable schoolchildren, as provided by a company doing appliance recycling for the local electric companies per their energy efficiency programs.
Old refrigerators contain styrofoam. In the making of it, the dangerous greenhouse gas CFC-11 may have been used as a blowing agent. In each refrigerator there is the equivalent of two and a half tons of environment-damaging CO2. After the old units are cut apart with a Sawzall (known as a reciprocating saw among you civilians), the styrofoam is stripped out. There are about 10 pounds of styrofoam per unit, containing about one pound of gas.
It was shown how the styrofoam, from a big pile of pieces from many units, was carefully bagged to guard against the release of this dangerous gas. The styrofoam is then appropriately taken care of “elsewhere.”
There you have it. A single pound of CFC-11, found in old styrofoam in an old refrigerator, is as dangerous to the environment as a greenhouse gas as 2 1/2 tons of CO2. Yes, that is the styrofoam numbers, the refrigerant is not included.
Gee, if it came down to it, I should be able to claim at least ten tons of carbon credits for what’s in the house and on the property. Although if it really is as damaging to the environment as that much carbon dioxide, maybe I should save that styrofoam for use in an actual greenhouse.
☺
@Ric Werme says: October 1, 2010 at 9:25 pm
well said!
jeremy of W.A. says: 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)
Have it on DVD and VHS. Watched often. Have the whole Faulty Towers series too. Don’t need a “course” as Mum is from England. I get the irony sarcasm just fine, love English humor, and know I have the English sense of humor as my friends don’t always get my jokes for exactly those reasons.
Finally review the video again and posit a new opinion.
OK. It’s worse crap than I thought the first time. Cold. Manipulative. Hateful. Vile.
Substantially no “humor” in it at all (and no, not even dry droll British humor). Just a load of “Blow Up Children who Do Not Submit”.
It’s a cultural thing.
I’m sure it is. Like eating your children during famine, or beheading those who do not agree with you, or blowing up innocents in airplanes to make a statement. All “cultural things” too. So was worshiping a sun cult and purification (of body, soul, and population). It’s not the fact that it’s a ‘cultural thing’ that is in dispute, it’s the nature of the ‘culture’ involved… and it isn’t British.
Sidebar: I’m especially fond of the “Gamy Leg” skit and also love A Fish Called Wanda… Oh, and “Mr. Creosote” was delicious 😉
Grist, sadly and disgustingly, is basically defending the movie and blaming ‘deniers’.
Here is what I left there as a comment:
“Blaming Marc Morano for for what a mainstream cliamte activist organization has shown about the dark side of the AGW social movement is almost as dumb as defending the movie.
That would be like blaming the ADL for pointing out that an anti-Semitic group made a movie about killing Jews and then defending the humorous intent of the movie, and that killing jews is not really what it is all about.
If people are not free to disagree, they are not free.
Perhaps a more thoughtful response from opinion leaders of the AGW movement would involve repudiating 10:10 and their movie and calling for a civil tone by AGW believers, including respectful dialog with people we will from now on call ‘skeptics’ and stop denigrating them, their ethics and beliefs. Most of all eco-activists need to stop pretending that their beliefs entitle them to threaten people, break the law, or support those who do. If you cannot get this message out, your movement will be fatally weakened in a matter of months.
From a reasonable person’s perspective, this move is simply a logical step in a movement that has gotten more and more shrill, self-righteous and demanding, even as public opinion tires of it. Face it: calling ‘global climate disruption’ for over 20 years has failed. Find something better to do than to defend blowing up children who disagree with you.
The ‘yecchhhh!’ factor is now attaching itself to you.
And I bet you completely miss the message. ”
I wonder how long it will take them to delete it?
jeremy of W.A. says:
October 2, 2010 at 3:39 am
Further to my comments on Satire, Monty Python etc. I forgot to include self-deprecation.
Self deprecation is the art of putting oneself down for the amusement of others. Self satirisation is pretty much the same thing.
This clip is a self satarising piece that uses a ‘cartoon’ image of homicidal greenies blowing up dissidents – in order to attract attention, perhaps even attract a laugh, but overall to put the message across about energy saving.
There’s way to many serious people around these days.
It is not a cartoon. A cartoon would have been distasteful but would not have raised this fuss. Cartoons, and before that Punch and Judy etc shows allowed expression of aggression harmlessly, because it is evident that it is not real people, but extremes of real people behavior.
This “no pressure” is made like a documentary. Would you let your kids see a real war conflict documentary with blood and gore? In our TV in Greece they shade over the blood and gore even for adults. This video was made in order to look real and convey reality, not distancing abstraction from human behavior, as cartoons are.
I think you are wrong.
I agree with those who say it is pornographic, in the sense of snuff films. There are people who get their excitement from snuff films. This caters to the perverts who fantasize blood and gore.
The people who are saying that they intended to have this effect for publicity are wrong, too.
Would you accept the 9/11 perpetrators saying it was for publicity? Then yes, this was also done for publicity.
John at 4:09,
I agree. The Monty Python comparison is completely false.
Beside, the makers of this film excuse the killing in very serious if totally delusional terms:
“We ‘killed’ five people to make No Pressure – a mere blip compared to the 300,000 real people who now die each year from climate change”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/sep/30/10-10-no-pressure-film
They obviously meant every drop of blood quite literally.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11458726
The BBC have finally got something up online but as you would expect they’re not condeming it, just following the joke gone wrong meme.
There are quite a few questions on the net asking if this was a publicity stunt, that they were intending to take the vid down anyway. The aim, to get us all talking about 10:10 which 99% of people have never heard of. I have my doubts that they got exactly what they were after LOL.