I’d like to say a few things about this video and its value to us as parents. On the surface its presentation and tone are friendly and it is easy to believe that it is a well-researched mini documentary, but that’s the scary part. It IS well presented, but it’s mission is not to inform, it is to persuade. It is a blatant attempt to mislead and actually lie to our childre; this video should NOT be in our schools, unless an opposing viewpoint is offered for equal time.
The video came out last year, and that far right-wing network CNN (sarc) did a short segment on it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vTJdpbUYhY
The “Story of Stuff” video portrays America and corporations in general as bad, a concept that I wholeheartedly disagree with. Leonard complains about “stuff” but fails to talk about how the manufacture, sale and consumption of “stuff” has helped make America the greatest nation on Earth.
For starters, Annie Leonard is the host. As with any presentation the audience should know what the speaker’s credentials are and why we should be listening to her. Leonard has worked for some of the most liberally oriented organizations in America.
- Greenpeace International – Far left environmental activist group, its history and violence is well-documented.
- GAIA – A Dutch group who’s vision is stated in its web site: “for all people to live in settlements containing all elements of society much like a holograph, where every part contains the whole.” It is anti-corporation, but interestingly enough, GAIA is funded through a massive hedge fund based on currency trading.
- Health Care Without Harm – The Tides Foundation is one of its many funders. HCWH has “a vision of a health care sector that does no harm, and instead promotes the health of people and the environment. To that end, we are working to implement ecologically sound and healthy alternatives to health care practices that pollute the environment and contribute to disease.” This sounds great, but the group is quite liberally biased.
- Global Greengrants. This group is a non-profit that provides grants to green projects and activists. Its board treasurer works for George Soros’ Tides Foundation, its board chair runs the Tobacco Free Project based in San Francisco.
- Essential Information – Founded in 1982 by Ralph Nader, Essential Information is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Very anti-corporation, anti-industry.
Based on her resume Annie Leonard is what most people would consider biased. As to the facts and errors in the video, it has been thoroughly explained and debunked. These videos are worth watching more than once.
- Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5uJgG05xU
- Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZzHU3ZfTtY
- Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgLrZc7cws8
- Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XeW5ilk-9Y
If you lack the time or attention span to watch the four videos above I’ve provided a small sample of the problems that lie within. Keep in mind that the following five errors appear in just the first three minutes of the video. The italicized statements are from the video verbatum, you can also download the script with footnotes in PDF format.
The source of this statement is the “War Resisters League.” Obviously they are biased enough, but the math is just horrible. To reach this conclusion they removed Medicare, Medicade and Social Security costs from the equation to inflate its number. Why? Because it serves their purpose of persuasion. By the way, the Congressional Budget Office confirms that military spending consumes 20%, not 50% of tax dollars. That’s a BIG difference.
2) “It’s the government’s job is to watch out for us, to take care of us. That’s their job.”
This is a very liberal interpretation of the PreAmble to the Constitution. The government exists to protect us from invasion, to handle foreign trade, and that’s about it. The STATES have more rights. The state is NOT our parent, our teacher or our baby-sitter. We get Life, Liberty and the PURSUIT of Happiness, not the GUARANTEE of happiness.
3) “Of the 100 largest economies on earth now, 51 are corporations”
Source: IPS, which acknowledges that it operates as a training center for radical organizers. This is a radically left anti-corporation organization. It is based on sales revenue, not profits. It is meaningless. Yes, Exxon/Mobile sells more product than the entire country of Chad. So what? This is just more anti-corporation rhetoric.
4) “we’ve seen a little change in the government where they’re a little more concerned in making sure everything is working out for [corporations] than for us.”
Again, more liberal anti-capitalism bias. The video shows the government shining the shoes of fat corporations. She completely ignores the influence of unions, lawyers and environmental activists on corporate behavior.
5) “In the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed. Gone.”
100% false. Pure liberal bias based on a book by environmental activists. It cannot be proved because it is a useless statement. As one of the videos above says, land with oil underneath it was useless until we discovered oil and learned how to use oil. Resources are replaceable.
I could go on but I think I’ve made my point. This well-produced video — funded by some of the most liberal, anti-American, anti-capitalism groups in existence — has done damage that we as involved parents need to correct. I shudder to think how many parents are not aware of this and how many millions of minds have been falsely persuaded toward this liberal eco/green way of thinking.
DISCLAIMER: The original article I am responding to (not my response) is loaded of curse words. If this language offends you, you have been warned.
This classy article is getting lots of tweet activity, and after seeing how libtards have acted before and after the election I can see why. It appeals to their emotions and is full of “look at me I can swear” curse words, all while being completely devoid of facts. I predict that the author of this curse-laden hissy fit will get a job working for Bill Maher. There is so much to rip about this post, I’ll try to keep it brief. Quotes from the rant are in italics.
1) Keith Olbermann calls Cheney a fascist when he was actually using fascist tactics and you think that gives you the freedom to call Obama a fascist, socialist, Marxist constantly for no reason at all.
No reason at all? Hmm… Have you seen who Obama has appointed lately? Try this communist, or this dictator lover. They are right in line with some of the mentally challenged politicians already in office. Have you seen the legislated power grabs? Have you seen the intentional exclusion of Republicans in the legislative process, how Pelosi/Reid lock them out of debate on such important legislation? My guess is you probably haven’t heard about this stuff. That would require research on your part.
2) Your populace actually believe the media has a liberal bias. Not because it has, you have the most conservative media in the free world, but because you’ve shouted it so loud and so often that you’ve brainwashed the public into believing it
Let me know when you get back from Mars, because you obviously don’t live on Earth. If the media is controlled by conservatives, how the hell did Obama get elected? Here’s a link to read, and here’s Obama suggesting that there was some media bias. If you like video, check this one out that details specific examples of Biden’s gaffes, and be sure to listen to the reporter’s comment at the very end. It’s called bias. And to keep it simple for you, here’s a link with pretty pictures so even you can understand the concept. And another.
3) You’ve bleated so loud and long that Reagan was a great president, that the New Deal didn’t work, that cutting taxes increases revenues, that you actually have the people believing this bullshit.
Dude… you need to step away from Warcraft for a while and do some basic research. Try this Joint Economic Committee article, or this analysis, and maybe this for future reference.
4) you push these ideas through your corporate media
Another corporate reference? See #2 above. You are parroting yourself.
5) Chappaquiddick, tortured random people, spent like a drunken sailor
- Kennedy killed Mary Jo, there’s no debating that. His fame kept him free. Dying does not make your crimes go away, or make you a better person.
- Three terrorist leaders are NOT “random people.”
- Obama’s spending makes Bush look frugal by comparison. Prove me wrong.
6) You bastards want to reinstate fucking slavery to the corporate class
Not really. Today’s real slave masters are the companies that hire illegal aliens and treat them like crap. The real slaves are the poor that depend on Welfare as a lifestyle instead of finding actual work. The real slaves are those of us that actually have jobs and are forced to “be patriotic” by giving even more of our hard-earned money to a government that has no idea whatsoever how to control its own spending.
7) care more about the corporations right to make obscene profits than they care about their child’s right to live on a habitable planet
Define obscene. Oil companies average 4-5% profit. Same for Health Care companies.
You want obscene profits? Look at beverages, beer, wine, software, credit card companies. Here is a quick look at profit margins. I also wrote about this last summer when you were probable shrieking about those evil Big Oil company profits.
I could dissect more of your blog/tantrum, but I think I’ve already shredded any sense of credibility you thought you had. At the end of the day you’ve accomplished nothing ore than exposing your lack of understanding about politics, helped identify other libtards that think like you do in the Twittersphere, and your overall lack of class. Maybe when you grow up you can actually write something that is based on fact. Until then, I wish you the best of luck working with Bill Maher. I hear he’s a great guy.
It seems that so many liberals have a serious memory disorder. Lately we have been hearing criticism of conservative angst and the frustration on display at town halls all across America. Liberals are simply shocked at such rude, horrific, hateful behavior. Nancy Pelosi dropped a Nazi reference while in Arkansas, and I would be dollars to doughnuts that anything resembling a swastika was planted by an SEIU or Acorn racist piece of crap thug. After all, it’s straight out of the Alinsky handbook. “No way,” our moderate and liberal friends, say. That’s just tinfoil hat talk. Sorry, but that’s the truth. Saul Alinsky was asked by college students at Tulane how to protest George HW Bush in 1972. He told them that instead of shouting Bush down, they should:
“go to hear the speech dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan, and whenever Bush said something in defense of the Vietnam War, they should cheer and wave placards reading, ‘The KKK supports Bush.’ And that is what they did, with very successful, attention-getting results.”
I am quite confident that this tactic is in play today.
So, as a reminder to the supposed high-road liberals out there, dissent is still patriotic, even when the opinions shouted are opposite of your own views.Here are some examples of the class liberals showed during the last eight years.
I’m really getting tired of hypocritical liberals telling me that my expression of free speech is offensive. I find political correctness offensive. I find Nancy Pelosi’s lies offensive. I find Joe Biden’s gaffes offensive. I find Barack Obama’s flip flopping and misleading offensive. I am waiting for the return of the days when free speech was supported by all Americans, especially liberals.
“Liberals can understand everything but people who don’t understand them.” Lenny Bruce
Calling all moderate Americans. WAKE UP! I can’t save or even influence the far lefties that have no clue about reality, but I can try to those of you in the middle ground.
Look back over the “failed eight years” that the left and Obama loved to whine about. Make a list of the accusations pointed at Bush and Cheney. What was he accused of? EVEN IF, for the sake of argument, you take the truther side and agree with their crazy assertions, what Obama is doing is exponentially worse, more restrictive, more invasive and more dangerous than ANYTHING that the Bush administration was accused of.
The Obama Administration has now expressed the need to restrict free speech, not only of lobbyists and insiders, but of “anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.” Who wrote that quote? Norman Eisen, who works for Barack Obama as Special Counsel to the President on Ethics and Government Reform. Ed Morrissey had this to say:
Remember when the Left took to the streets to declare dissent “patriotic” during wartime? I didn’t have a problem with dissent then, but apparently the Left has a curious definition of “patriotism”. Now, suddenly, the federal government can silence their critics at will, not to protect critical national-security programs or keep from undermining a war effort, but to protect a Democratic president intent on seizing control of private industry across a wide swath of the nation. Suddenly, that kind of dissent threatens America.
Seriously speaking, when will the media and moderates that voted for Obama wake up and realize that this man is truly dangerous for America? Once upon a time liberals stood up for free speech. Remember the 1960s? What the hell has happened to the Left?Let me leave you chewing on this:
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of “liberalism,” they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”
Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
CNN blow hard Jack Cafferty has crossed a line, in my humble yet loud opinion. Read this short little essay, or just enjoy a few Liberal nuggets from his diatribe:
- Nobody is interested anymore, Mr. Vice President. You and your gaggle of miscreants had your shot, and we are in the toilet because of it. Don’t you get it?”
- “{bush] more than doubled the national debt in eight years and gave $700 billion to its buddies on Wall Street, no questions asked. You’re a little short on credibility when it comes to the economy, don’t you think?”
- “[The Bush Administration] authorized the United States of America to behave like some Third World gang of hoodlums like the Taliban or al Qaeda.”
- [on Dick Cheney] “Now our reputation is shot, we are bankrupt, we continue to fight two wars that you started and the economy is in the worst recession since the Great Depression. And you have the temerity to go around criticizing those who replaced you? How dare you?”
HOW DARE YOU Mr. Cafferty? How dare you! Maybe you haven’t noticed due to your apparent love for the quality news sources and research espoused by Keith Olberdork, but Americans do not behead, break bones, cut skin, remove body parts, stone to death or shoot people in the back. How dare YOU, Mr. Cafferty, compare our troops to Al Qaeda/Taliban. Have you been spending some quality time with Jack Murtha ripping our soldiers and getting your egregious lies in sync? You have seriously crossed a line by comparing our troops to our enemies.
You have done nothing more in this article but propagate the Left mantra: I know I am just one of those crazy conservative potential terrorists, but let me set you straight, if that is even possible.
- Bush did not create this economic situation. It started long ago thanks to Carter and bad loans. Clinton made it worse. Bush tried to blow the whistle but was blocked by Frank, Dodd, et al. Don’t YOU get it Jack? Apparently not.
- Yes, Bush doubled the debt. But if you look at the numbers our economy was growing and debt was decreasing, until the bailouts that most Americans opposed were made. Even then, President Obama has since quadrupled our debt and the long term ramifications are even worse. $700M is a bargain these days in an Obama Nation.
- How dare YOU, Mr. Cafferty, compare our troops that have kept your misinformed and wildly partisan ass safe for the past eight years to Al Qaeda!
This article from Mr. Jack Cafferty has motivated me to create a new award. Olbermann has his “Worst Person in the World,” “O’Reilly has “Patriots and Pin Heads.” I’m jumping into the fray and am proud to announce the Loud Talker’s Jack-Ass Of The Week. Congratulations Jack, you’ve earned your namesake.
