Thursday, May 21, 2009

Why Does the Mainstream Media Continue to Provide A Platform for STUPID™?

Over and over, certain people that have a microphone and access to the airwaves keep reiterating their idiotic claim that carbon dioxide is natural, and therefore not a pollutant or even harmful.

Loud people like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Jim Quinn, not to mention several Stupid™ GOP members of Congress keep saying this over and over, in their effort to deny there is any greenhouse effect, or that we should be at all concerned about the danger of excessive carbon emissions and global climate change.

Here are some of the Insane Champions of Stupid™ at their finest:



At about 1:40 into the video, Glenn Beck makes a big production of breathing in and out, noting that his exhalation is a "dangerous gas."

Frankly, I'll leave it to you to decide if what comes out of Mr. Beck is a dangerous gas, or not.

No scientist has ever said CO2 isn't "natural." It is.

So is arsenic.

I still don't want it in my drinking water.


h/t to Media Matters



7 comments:

Matt Osborne said...

Okay, so how do you define Stupid™? This is important. Your grandchildren's grandchildren may blog with this word...

Silly Ratfaced Git said...

Glenn Beck is a waste of skin.

I'd like to put him in a room with 10% CO2 and see how long it takes him to realize that even natural things can be bad for you. I'll bet he wouldn't last five minutes.

Wolfe Tone said...

Matt,

That's a tough one. Stupid™ is more easily defined by giving examples, but I'll venture a try:

Stupid™ is not just defined as a lack of intellectual acuity - that would just be plain, ordinary stupid.

Stupid™ is more than that.

Along with the inability to engage in critical thinking, Stupid™ also reflects an obstinate insistence in adhering to wrong-headed assumptions that fly in the face of logic, and ignore all evidence to the contrary. The deliberate refusal to change one's mind, even when proved wrong.

Stupid™ is not only the inability to learn, it is the refusal to learn.

How's that?

Wolfe Tone said...

Git,

Beck's argument is one that is Stupid™.
I can think of many, many things that are "naturally occurring," but that doesn't mean that they're desirable or benign.

Chlamydia comes to mind.

Since he is so concerned about the atmosphere, I'll make the observation that with every breath he takes, Mr. Beck is wasting oxygen that rightfully belongs to the rest of us.

Grace said...

How's that?

pretty darn good.

veralynn said...

If we are going to use "natural" as a benchmark, then why isn't marijuana legal? and why is hemp so frowned upon? this is also part of teh stupid...making idiotic statements about one thing, then using the same reasoning to be against another thing. You can put that in better terms, you know what I mean lol

kodiakgriff said...

I love to listen to the experts that either side of this issue the media brings forth. Global warming has become the catch phrase for a new generation of environmental doomsayers. There is actually a growing group in scientific circles that think we may be at the beginning of a cooling stage. So what does this create? It creates a new arena for the right and the left to spar in. Good for ratings, but it doesn't help with a solution.
I still hold with what great grandmother taught me. Nothing in excess is good for you.
That holds true for naturally occurring gases/pollutants, and especially true for the media.
Wolf Tone:
Luv the blog. I just stumbled in from I Eat Gravel. Kepp it up!
Peace
Griff

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