American Heartland Institute runs silly ads against global warming.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The American Heartland Institute (big tobacco's lobbying arm) newest ad campaign.

In some ways, this is an almost perfect illustration of what has happened to the "right." A refusal to acknowledge scientific reality; and a brutalist style of public propaganda that focuses entirely on guilt by the most extreme association. Here's how the Heartland Institute describes this new campaign:

The billboard series features Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber; Charles Manson, a mass murderer; and Fidel Castro, a tyrant. Other global warming alarmists who may appear on future billboards include Osama bin Laden and James J. Lee (who took hostages inside the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in 2010). These rogues and villains were chosen because they made public statements about how man-made global warming is a crisis and how mankind must take immediate and drastic actions to stop it.

This is where the American right now is:

The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.

Mann and Ornstein are correct. Large sections of the American right are now close to insane as well as depraved. And there is no Buckley to rein them in. Just countless Jonah Goldbergs seeking to cash in.

This ad campaign would be hysterical if it wasn't so sad. Considering the millions of dollars the Heartland Institute has, this is the best they could do? Guilt by association? Are sophisticated matters of public policy now reduced to billboard ads with messages shorter than a Tweet? It's just another example of the debate being "dumbed down" by corporate lobbyists that have the money to do so. But in the spirit of Friday "lulz," using the same logic presented in the original ad, here are some mock-ups.



Some of the fine folks in the ONTD political community whipped these up:



Thanks paulnolan







Thanks circumambulate

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

To be honest if you asked the GOP to come up with an idea that doesn't amount to "YAY 1890s" I don't think it has the intellectual capability of doing so. Why come up with an idea when you can accuse your political opponents of being terrorists or genocidal totalitarians and like a spoiled child expect to say things without any consequences whatsoever for them and being entitled in actual fact to do just that?

[dwer.livejournal.com]

it's anti-identity politics! After all, who wants to be like THAT guy?!?

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

It's pretty fucking sad, and they are not doing the case for skepticism any favors by resorting to such tactics.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

This poster is making me re-think my position on facial hair.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

He's wearing clothes, too, so what about that? :P

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

He's totally sporting the madman beard and haircut (or lack of one)

Arrived extra unkempt and unwashed for his mugshot.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Of course they probably adjusted the levels in photoshop and filtered out all blues and greens to make him look extra sweaty and unkempt. Something like this:

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Bollocks. If your dad doesn't have a beard, you've got two mums.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

It's moments like this that I feel the urge to scream "Please stay off my side!".

As Dwer pointed out, it's identity politics in it's most base form and does nothing to adress actual flaws in the in the arguments for AGW.

In my mind it betrays the ideological weakness of the anti-AGW crowd (That's the best you could come up with?), just as the need to withold data and fudge numbers betrays the weakness of the pro-AGW crowd.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Except of course, the two sides aren't equally weighted - with the whole 97-98% of published scientists supporting AGW.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

What's next, anti-vegetarian billboards featuring Hitler?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Jonah Goldberg is on the job!

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Or billboards against parochial schools featuring Stalin, newspaper editors featuring Mussolini, and cross-dressing featuring J. Edgar Hoover?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I love this graphic and thought you'd like it :P



[if a detractor feels the need to whine about climate is not weather, just zoom past this comment. I am cognizant of that fact.]

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

GET OUT OF MY BRAIN I WAS GOING TO POST THAT

[muscadinegirl.livejournal.com]

Snap.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

So yeah, like association fallacy is probably one of the most widely known logical fallacies out there, why do people have the dumb this bad?

[fieryphoenix.livejournal.com]

I bet he's a filthy heliocentrist, too.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

In some ways, this is an almost perfect illustration of what has happened to the "right."

Strawman. Don't be so intellectually dishonest.

Yes, it's a pretty stupid ad campaign. That's about all you've got here.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Favorite responses on internet communities:
No. 1 - Strawman
No. 2 - Intellectually dishonest
No. 3 - Awesome!
No. 4 - libtard

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I was thinking about doing one on this.

Ed Brayton's been blogging about it. Apparently Heartland took the billboards down already, with some half-assed explanation (not even an apology) about being willing to take "risks" or something.

Anyway, doesn't change the fact that Heartland Institute is pretty vile, and this is par for the course for them. Sad thing is, it's actually more honest than what they usually put out.

Thinkprogress has a list of 19 corporations that are helping to fund Heartland (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/02/17/428111/exposed-the-19-public-corporations-funding-the-climate-denier-think-tank-heartland-institute/?mobile=nc), in case it comes in handy. ;)

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Thank you kind sir, I will look at that! ;)

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I hear he believes in gravity too. Everybody tether yourselves to the ground before we fly into space!!!!!!

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

Fool! There is no gravity. The earth sucks.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Good grief that is pathetic. The vast majority of intelligent, honest, competent, and effective climate scientists side with the evidence AGW exists.

This is truly horrific. Who funds these idiots?

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Does it matter?

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

You know what the worst thing about all this is

I know there is going to be someone I know down the road that would take all this in wholesale and tell me about how people who accept the idea of Global Warming are on the fringe with murders and tyrants.

They'll vomit this verbatim

They'll be like "Oh you know who believes in Global Warming, Ted Kaczynski! What does that tell you?!"

And this wouldn't be a stupid person, this will be a well educated person that either is the head of some high-paying job or has long retired from said high-paying job. It'll be some otherwise intelligent, successful person that takes in all this crap.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

BDJ?

[vehemencet-t.livejournal.com]

You know when I read Ted's Industrial Society and It's Future, I actually thought some of it was a valid critique and insightful. Overall I approved of the work. So humorously enough it doesn't even phase me to share some of the same views. I always viewed the man as something of a tragic case to be honest--it doesn't excuse the innocent lives he targeted--but knowing that he started out just trying to live in cabin in the mountains by himself among nature first before the development coprorations came and destroyed the woods which made him so pissed off that I guess he came to the rather illogical conclusion a bombing campaign against computer scientists and low-level salesmen would somehow help. It's just kinda sad, both for the victims and for the man.

And ONTD_P---awesome reference Hitler Ate Sugar! I whole heartedly approve (and that's rare for me with you).

But as for the others, don't you know Ted never believed in abstinence ed? :D Silly...

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

I haven't read his work, but Kevin Kelly approved of it in his book, What Technology Wants. It sounds interesting.

[iany.livejournal.com]

What? What? What?????