Despite Wanton Corruption and Political Theater, Environmentalism's Star Is Rising
A reader sent me this regarding my apology for having referred to habitual viewers of Fox News as “idiots”: Congratulations on your apology. It was well written and sincere. However, I can’t see how you can say Bill O’Reilly (from Fox News) is neither “fairness nor truth” when he always has two guests representing an issue: one of liberal persuasion and the other conservative. Also RealClearPolitics.com has editorials and articles from both sides. Please tell me where you get your news, and I’ll check it out.
You’re right in that, on the surface, both of these sources feature both sides, though RealClearPolitics, focused as it is on conservative intellectuals, is clearly right of center. This is hardly a secret; a good and fair summary is linked above. To me, Bill O’Reilly is simply a mean-spirited bully whose only real talent is beating up on a carefully selected group of intellectual lightweights, to the utter delight of his audience. You won’t see Robert Reich or Naomi Klein (pictured) on the show; rather, you’ll see someone with a poorly defended position who was foolish enough to accept the invitation and walk full-speed into a meat-grinder.
In any case, we all need to keep in mind that this is theater. O’Reilly puts on a really good show for people who think like you, i.e., conservatives who are too intelligent and well-educated to stomach Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. But amazingly, he may be on his way out. Speaking of theater, as you’re probably aware, there are a whole bunch of people who want O’Reilly’s head on a platter for lying a la Brian Williams.
In any case, as far as what I favor, you’ll be appalled to know that I like amusement of a different type, e.g., John Oliver, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert before he moved on. Of course, none of these is a good place to get real news; the only reason these “stories” are written in the first place is that they can make liberals shine and make conservatives look stupid. It too is entertainment (and they’ll be the first people to tell you that), just aimed at people who think more or less like me.
But that’s what our government is anyway: theater—and bad theater at that. In an average room full of third graders you’ll find far more maturity, wisdom, kindness, honesty, fair-mindedness and willingness to take responsibility for others. I complain that the Republicans are owned by the corporations, especially Big Oil, which is demonstrably true; just look at the record of campaign contributions. Of course, now most of this is dark money, but for a long while it told the story of pure, unvarnished corruption that was available for anyone to see. This is what gives us climate denialism, creationism taught in schools as science, institutionalized religious bigotry, subsidies for Big Oil, deregulation of Wall Street, perpetual war, trickle-down economics (a proven failure), rejection of Obamacare and gun control, etc. And yes, the Democrats are owned as well—just by a different set of interests.
Yet surprisingly, despite all this wanton stupidity and criminality, we appear to be on the mend. In fact, in the only subject I know anything about, i.e., energy and the environment, it seems to me that the good guys have already won the war, as you know from reading “Bullish on Renewable Energy.” The replacement of fossil fuels with clean energy sources is happening far faster than most people understand, largely driven by pure market economics. But it’s also due in part, I’m happy to say, to a rising level of public enlightenment on the subject and an absolute refusal to be the generation that ruined the planet. Even the real dullards are having a tough time lining up with the environmental rapists. I find that very gratifying.
