It seems that climate advocate Bill McKibben has jumped the shark. As evident on the 350.org website, it is no longer about climate in any way shape or form, of course, based on past behavior, it probably never was. Just have a look at some of the recent pronouncements from the 350.org website:
and from two days ago…
Listen to what McKibben and some of his fellow protestors have to say:
But even our own Willis Eschenbach thinks the XL pipeline issue is ridiculous, because there is really only one question: Where will the oil be burned?
I think this image sums up this farce pretty well:
I wonder what corporate airline Bill McKibben uses to jet around the world to speak of the evils of CO2 and corporations?
The only thing missing from the picture (though it is likely in there somewhere) is Apple Corporation, purveyor of (in my opinion, highly overpriced) computers which have an almost fanatical following in some circles.Now before you launch into an automatic Mac-vs-PC war, please read why I’m pointing this out.
Apple is company number one (according to Bloomberg) in growth and revenue, and #1 in tech (according to NYT) but the same people who complain about Wall Street, think nothing of getting fleeced by Apple for a computer you can buy for about a third of the price elsewhere.
While everyone is free to choose what computer works best for them, I find that lack of labeling of Apple as a “greedy corporation” very ironic, particularly in light of the worker abuse, child labor problems and environmental problems left in the wake of the manufacturing of Apple’s products in China. It is doubly ironic that some of the loudest and most acidic voices about climate and greed, are Apple product users, and raise not a peep about such problems. Apple gets a pass, probably because the Goreacle endorses the company and sits on its board.
But that’s a side issue, especially when one of the most intelligent and reasonable persons I know, WUWT author Willis Eschenbach, is a Mac user. I only point out Apple Corporation in this context because the occupy protesters and climate activists don’t see the very profitable and ethically/ecologically questionable Apple Corporation as being in the same class of evil corporations they protest for the very same reasons.
The real issue with “occupy” is the lack of rational thought and direction by this “movement”. Even the MSM and some university newspapers are noticing this. For example, watch this video from “occupyAtlanta”. They are actually proud of making a civil rights leader leave.
And in case you were wondering about the political angle, be sure to recite the Marxist chant:
The mindless droning has spread to Seattle:
They may as well be chanting Imhotep Imhotep! Imhotep!!
There’s a name for people like this: useful idiots.
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Yup. The worst part of all is that their protests against “global warming” are serving Wall Street perfectly. Goldman Sachs loves Bill McKibben, because Goldman loves chaos.
Middle-sized corporations that actually produce things (ie Main Street) have been slow to get on the carbon bandwagon, though many of them have succumbed to peer pressure by now.
The carbon bandwagon has been pulled by Wall Street speculators who see an entirely new market for derivatives and securitization.
I’m of the camp that agrees with SOME of what the original Occupiers seemed to stand for. I think there is way too much power with the banks. And when major corporations like GE can get away with paying little or no taxes, that’s just plain wrong. Not for a second am I going to be lead around by the nose by FOX believing the “job creators” should pay less – sheesh, give me a break. But when I see the McKibben’s of the world, and the various unions that have hijacked this movement, I get sick to my stomach. What, to my eyes, started off as a groundswell of ordinary people “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore”, suddenly shifted to opportunists with a pet cause jumping in with both feet. The message that the people are fed up with being kept down, doesn’t mean they want a different set of boots on their neck — this time from the political left who long ago decided they knew what was best for everybody.
To be fair there is an “END the FED” sign on that photo (funny though the captions are) which suggests there are some very awake and aware folks (Ron Paul climate realist types) at #occupyWallSt
I think it is pretty clear where the political leanings of this site now lie. Views on climate change correlate with political views pretty well. Seems science has been forgotten.
REPLY: Heh funny! Sure, go ahead, criticize this site for pointing out the failings of science in a purely political organization that claims to be about science, but isn’t. Show me the last time those bozos at 350 actually discussed any science, showed a graph for analysis or linked to a dataset, then you might have a point. Until then, your comment is MegaFAIL – Anthony
I supose they have to do something/anything to divert attention from the White House.
proof this blog is backed by greedy 1% ers
REPLY: yeah sure, whatever you say. 😉 But you forgot the /sarc tag there anonymous coward – Anthony
@Anthony
Reasonable intelligent people don’t have a history of serious drug abuse, incarceration, and institutionalization for mental problems. Those are things that reasonable intelligent people manage to avoid.
One of those spontaneous outpourings of emotion, by people against everything, who see conspiracies everywhere, and who spend months organizing a movement that appears to spring up overnight. Once it catches the media’s eye, it’s becomes birds of a feather all flocking together.
I wonder what the ramifcations of all this will be , especially if things turn ugly – which could easily happen .
We need to contact the Union of Concerned Scientists immediately. They have been quite concerned over the politicization of science for some time now. I’m sure they’ll be right on this ASAP.
Exactly. This is 99% about getting Obama re-elected. It’s not like he can run on his record.
Talk about mindless chanting and robot like groupthink.
It is a substitute for actual thinking.
As the Professor observes, it’s all about the narrative. Looks like another re-play of Mario Savio’s Filthy Speech Movement at UC Berkley, or the Seattle WTO demonstrations. Sponsored and supported be Anarchists United, plus a few unions and President Pouty Face.
Seems both the left (occupy wall street folks) and the right (tea party folks) are just generally angry. They are angry for different reasons (i.e. one is focus on big business and one is focused on big government) and angry for some of the same reasons (i.e an economy that isn’t creating enough jobs fast enough and where the middle class is feeling squeezed, etc.)
That 350.org would rally around the occupy wall street crowd is not surprising as both these groups tend to lean pretty radically left and tend to attract the younger (mac using and loving) crowd. It also would stand to reason that as the AGW movement has generally suffered from a lack of interest as of late, there may be some move to pull some energy back into the cause by attaching themselves to and sucking it from the occupy wall street crowd…sort of like a Green Vampire.
Too bad they have it all backwards. Our centralized government gives tax breaks and incentives to big companies in order to control them. And the more control government has over companies, the more control they have over individuals. Regulations are written in favor of big business because it limits the ability of entrepreneurs to create new, smaller and less controllable companies.
Ultimately, the goal is to rule us.
What do you expect from people who have wasted a $100K or so on a worthless college education by avoiding all math, science, economics, etc. possible and majoring in subjects that no company with any functioning brain cells would possibly consider hiring. I wonder how many of the protesters have majoried in Victorian Female Authors or Organic Composting or Transgender Studies or Sustainability Studies? You imbeciles don’t have good paying jobs because you don’t know anything that is of even minimal value to any employer.
If the 99% really was 99% they wouldn’t have to stage sit ins. (this totally grass-roots message brought to you thanks to generous contributions from SEIU, OFA, attackwatch.com, & IWW)
99% says:
October 9, 2011 at 1:03 pm
proof this blog is backed by greedy 1% ers
Oh, don’t forget the BIG OIL money this site is getting too!
I bet Anthony can rest back in his mansion and sip his 1000$ wine now…
Kathy Wolfe 12.47pm
A word of warning. This site is addictive and there is no known cure. The ‘links’ and comments section plus the ‘information pages’ require a minimum of 4 hrs. a day!
So much to read and SO much to learn.
Regards and happy reading.
Anthony, you were spot on when you stated, “The real issue with “occupy” is the lack of rational thought and direction by this “movement”.
Here is a quote from a person engaged in that movement, from an AP article…… Karen Livecchia, 49, agreed. “For now, it’s a lot like the Internet — leaderless, spaceless,” she said as she collected signatures at the march, spurred to action by an email from the liberal group MoveOn.org. “It’s hard to tell what it will lead to. But I’m not concerned that we don’t have specific demands — that will come.“
I wrote about it here…… http://suyts.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/more-about-the-wall-street-wackos/
Looks pretty normal to me… What started out as a reasonably genuine protest against the supposed power of Wall St (even though I might personally not agree with their premise) got taken over by the normal ratbaggery that wants to protest anywhere, anytime about anything.
Look at Greenpeace as another example. The Australian Greens (a useless collection of ragbags if ever there was one).
What constantly amazes me is that the people in these protests understand that they have the right to free speech and the right to express their political opinions, and want to remove those rights from everyone else. Oh, well… It’s at least consistent with the rather clever summation image.
It’s obvious that McKibben will surf the wave of the OWS movement for his Climate Crusade. Clearly the Climate Crusade has gone out of breath and this will help him, he thinks. Also because most of the demonstrators belong to the same group of melons.
Completely agree with the “Useful Idiots” moniker. We now see, predictably, older and more experienced groups like the Unions muscle their way in to profit from the momentum. We have a similar protest movement going on in Germany, the “Pirate party” who don’t know what the want, only that they want free downloading of copyrighted material. And that the Banks and the established parties are evil.
If any of these movements would explain what kind of system they have in mind once they toppled the existing one, I would be able to decide whether I agree with their goals or not. At the moment you can’t even call them leftist as they don’t define their desired policies. Well, they will end up as ordinary lefties, that’s easy to see, and if only because the experienced agitators will come to dominate them.
@ur momisugly Allencic,
Last year some time, I heard a call to Dave Ramsey where a woman had done a PhD in German Polka Dance and had run up a massive student loan debt. She was wondering how she was going to pa it all back since she wasn’t employable…
He uses that call as a warning about useless education all the time now.