Tim Blair writes at The Telegraph blogs about weepy Bill McKibben as examined by a specialist.
![BillMcKibben%28photocreditSteveLiptay%29-lowres[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/billmckibben28photocreditsteveliptay29-lowres1.jpg?quality=83)
Stanley Kurtz examines our old pal Bill McKibben, whose warming obsession evolved from his cravings for victimhood:
In a 1996 piece titled “Job and Matthew,” McKibben describes his arrival at college in 1978 as a liberal-leaning student with a suburban Protestant background. “My leftism grew more righteous in college,” he says, “but still there was something pro forma about it.” The problem? “Being white, male, straight, and of impeccably middle-class background, I could not realistically claim to be a victim of anything.”
At one point, in what he calls a “loony” attempt to claim the mantle of victimhood, McKibben nearly convinced himself that he was part Irish so he could don a black armband as Bobby Sands and fellow members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army died in a hunger strike. Yet even as he failed to persuade himself he was Irish, McKibben continued to enthusiastically support every leftist-approved victim group he could find. Nonetheless, something was missing. None of these causes seemed truly his own. When McKibben almost single-handedly turned global warming into a public issue in 1989, his problem was solved. Now everyone could be a victim …
Global warming allows the upper-middle-class to join the proletariat, cloaking erstwhile oppressors in the mantle of righteous victimhood.
Good call.
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For the record, IMHO and based on some of his current behavior, I’m pretty sure Bill McKibben is becoming a danger to himself and others.
Related articles
- Bill McKibben’s excellent eco-hypocrisy (wattsupwiththat.com)
- The Wannabe Oppressed (educationviews.org)
- Despite being disgusted with Gore for selling out to Al Jazeera, Warmist Bill McKibben’s global warming documentary to premier on fossil fuel funded Al Jazeera (climatedepot.com)
- This week’s ‘Al Gore Jr. Eco-Hypocrisy Award’ goes to 350.org founder Bill McKibben [pic] (twitchy.com)
h/t to Verity Jones
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Stephen Wilde,
“In the UK ‘public schools’ provide a private education. State schools cater for the rest.
Not sure how such a misleading nomenclature initially rose.”
In the olden days, public schools were open to anyone (provided they could afford the fees). The alternative, long before state schools existed, was private tutors.
Trouble is they’re still breeding young McKibbens-
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/its_a_gas_gas_gas/
Meanwhile their sacred totems are beginning to fall-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2461999/Yorkshire-Dales-wind-farm-Britain-torn-down.html
Tim keeps us in good humour while we call out these sad sack shucksters as we’re all acutely aware of Blair’s Law-
“… the ongoing process by which the world’s multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force”
nowhere better illustrated than when they all gathered together at Copenhagen with their expectant media in tow.
Here’s a very amusing take on this:
http://nationalreview.com/education-week/360874/wannabe-oppressed-stanley-kurtz
I recently wrote an item published by Samizdata about this very subject: http://www.samizdata.net/2013/10/the-big-cause-2/
If the cold and snowy winter forecasts for North America and Europe verify it will be interesting to see how hypocrites McKibben, Cooke, Lewandowsky, and the rest of these losers try to spin it. They won’t be able to use the low Arctic Sea Ice meme this time.
McKibben has achieved his dream, he is now a victim, a victim of his own stunted mentality.
In order to fully understand Global Warming you must first understand the Liberal Brain. Each Liberal Brain is born with 723,0809 neuronal synaptic connections devoted to a life long search for government solutions to problems, both real and imagined. The Liberal Brain falls into severe affective mood disorder without pursuing those solutions. When there are no problems the Liberal Brain invents them. This theory falls very nicely in line with Maslow’s theory of a Hierarchy of Human Needs. If in fact we are in store for decades of Global Cooling, there will be a national need for Counseling Centers for said Liberal Brains.
To be fair the idiots did have a plan for multiplying their numbers and I’ll let you guess who wrote this in 2007-
“In 1987, the Cold War was starting to warm up, but so was the Earth. The Berlin Wall was starting to come down, but nascent political and ideological threats were emerging. Traditional academic disciplines were searching for new language, tools, and answers to interdisciplinary problems. The concept of sustainability was just being introduced, but there was a growing appreciation that problems of the environment, economy, and society were intricately linked.
This idea drove us to create the Pacific Institute. We believed that global problems and effective solutions in the 21st century would require innovative ways of thinking, seeing, and doing. “
A guy who found his victimhood in 1989 with a fledgling theory that has been falsified by only 10 years of warming left when he joined the cause, followed by 17 yrs and counting of no warming is only going to get shriller and shriller – he may mistake the white coats for scientists when they take him away. First we have the real conspirators of climategate that Lew is unwittingly projecting from, then Glieck the confidence trickster, Boora Boora the molester and now a ‘conflicted’ McKibben. I hope this isn’t the tip of any icebergs or beginning of a trend. One can certainly be led to believe that angry Joe Romm might soon be “outed” and others. It would be so embarrassing to think that such as these were almost allowed to ruin the world.
…which as Walter Russell Mead pointed out so succinctly, is how they bred up to become one giant useless force-
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2010/07/12/the-big-green-lie-exposed/
When you sell your soul to get ahead
The devil will not sell it back.
McKibben should confess how he got ahead at Harvard and at the New Yorker. It would assuage his chronic guilt, and be more interesting to read about than the drivel he’s been producing for the past decade.
All comments above are enabling McKibben’s addiction.
Our public schools teach victimhood as a matter of course … why is it surprising that it produces people like McKibben and our cause-addicted liberals.
I personally feel absolutely no embarrassment or guilt for what I have worked my ass off for.
My public school surely does NOT teach victimhood. Where the hell do people get this public school information from???? Spouting without thinking is rampant on both sides of this debate. Mike, you sound like Bill. Stop it.
However, on to Bill. He big baby.
If Bill McKibben truly wants to experience being a victim, he should stage an accident. Then during the investigation, state the accident was done intentionally. This way, he can live under the scrutiny of insurance fraud. It is very easy to be the victim of one’s own accident. Heck, on top of it, he’ll have his own guilt to deal with!
McKibben has invented a real cause that middle classes can identify with – without the guilt.
In the good ol’ days, the guilt ridden middle classes took up arms on behalf of the oppressed masses. But because they themselves did not share in the plight of the oppressed they could not assuage their guilt.
Now McKibben has not only made us all victims (no more guilt) He has given us a way of salvation. If we change our ways and follow the true path of eco activism we can be pardoned of our sins. Halleujah.
Bill was in my town last night giving a talk at one of our local colleges. His faithful were out in force and gave him a standing “O” when he completed his one hour brainwashing. I wish I had known about it as I would have been happy to attend and give a full report.
I didn’t know who McKibben was until I started reading here and other places folks getting excited about what he had said. When I looked up his bio, I couldn’t see anything that qualified his comments as having any meaning. Heck, he doesn’t even say he has a degree in journalism in one bio. So, all McKibben seems to be is tadchem’s squeaky wheel. If he is obsessed with guilt, he doesn’t seem willing to don sack cloth and ashes to atone for his sins, much to his discredit.
Maybe I should feel guilty about, like MattN, not feeling the least embarrassment or guilt for what I have worked for. Nope.
Everything is man’s fault:
http://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/global/big_ice_age_ending_cartoon.gif
charles nelson says:
October 17, 2013 at 3:30 am
The idea of ‘original sin’ is deeply engrained in the Christian consciousness.
It is inextricably linked with being born.
Breathing air and exhaling CO2 is simply a modified form of ‘original sin’.
__________________________________
Careful, careful- perhaps some Christians teach original sin, but this country boy went faithfully to Sunday School and never heard the term “original sin” until I met my first Catholic. I don’t remember reading Jesus Christ’s own words on original sin.
I see plenty of people who have something to say online about Christianity, but they never say anything about Islam (why is that?) or Buddhism. If you want a massive heaping helping of original sin, then learn a bit about Buddhism, or Hinduism.
I thought the entire intention of the green movement was to create victims. I’m not looking forward to the toe tag count from this year’s winter in the UK and elsewhere where too many people have to choose between cold food or cold housing.
Kudos to Tim Blair and the many commenters for their insights on the craving for victimhood and cause addiction.
Another side of the coin is the appeal of collective guilt — a staple of ‘progressive’ politics. For many Old and New Lefties, activism was a way to atone for the guilt they felt at being privileged scions of “imperialist, colonialist, racist” America. South Park lampooned this phenomenon in “Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow” http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/episodes/s09e08-two-days-before-the-day-after-tomorrow.
In that episode, fourth graders Stan and Eric “borrow” (steal) a motor boat and crash it into the world’s largest beaver dam, flooding the town of Beaverton. The adults in South Park don’t care much about rescuing the victims stranded on rooftops, but they care a lot about finding out who deserves the blame. Some accuse George Bush; others, Al Qaeda. Stan’s scientist father determines the true cause: global warming.
At the end of the episode, the Army rescues the Beaverton residents and ends the global warming panic — but only by blaming the flood on another bogeyman: Pink, Multi-Legged, Crab People.
Unable to live with the guilt any longer, Stan confesses to the people of South Park: ”I broke the dam.” One of the adults translates: “Don’t you see what this child is saying … we all broke the dam.” Another adult steps forward and says, “I broke the dam.” Then another . . . and another. Everybody wants in on the guilt.
Warmism feeds and legitimizes the desire to blame and punish. But it also gratifies the guilty feeling that “we have met the enemy, and it is us.”
No wonder the guy is cracking up! I’d say he’s ready for IM (intramuscular) injections of a good, strong anti-psychotic, preferably Haldol.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/15/us-oil-pira-idUSL1N0I51IX20131015
Any good “victimization scheme” must cost as many others as possible some real pain, anguish and money. By that standard, AGW is the grandaddy of all such inventions.