Tough Times for Wingnuts
October 13th, 2007
Now that Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize, right-wing bloggers and pundits are searching for an angle. A few are attacking the Nobel committee, as I expected (“the Nobel Committee has awarded their meaningless, politically driven Peace Prize to the Goracle”), but others apparently find it harder to slime and smear the Nobel Prize, and so they’ve been reduced to nay-saying his film and his message (“Gore’s film is bursting with lies”) yet again. And, of course, they’ve broken out the endless supply of Gore-looks-stupid images that the MSM has been happily providing for years.
You gotta figure, though, through all the invective and denial, Gore’s win has got to sting them just a little. Ergo the reaction.
I have an angle, and I’m not a wingnut.
The U.S. government has led the way in stalling global warming agreements. So now that the Nobel Commitee has decided to award someone on this issue, it awards a representative of the U.S. government? Where’s the logic in that?
And why award a POLITICIAN?? Why not award scientists or an organization entirely independent of government? The implicit message: when the environment needs saving, politicians take the lead. American politicians in particular.
Well, you always have the same IP address of the person calling himself “cc,” even when it changes for both of you, so either you live with a wingnut, or you’re the same person.
A couple things wrong with what you’ve said here, the biggest is that Gore is a “representative of the U.S. government,” as if he were in any way representative of or connected to the same people who are stalling on the global warming agreements. Gore is just about the antithesis of that. The prize is often given to a person who opposes certain forces within their own government as a way of encouraging change, just like they did in 1990 with Mikhail Gorbachev, as a way of encouraging a more open way of governing in the Soviet Union. The clear message with Gore’s prize is to tell the Bush administration that their stalling on global warming is strongly opposed by the international community at its most respected levels. Giving Gore the prize also gives him more cache, and therefore more ability to deliver his message.
Again, many things wrong. First of all, the peace prize has very often gone to politicians. Second, Gore is not currently a politician; had he entered the presidential race, he probably would have been less apt to have won the prize. Third, they did give the Nobel to “scientists or an organization entirely independent of government”; Gore shared the award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. But Gore shared that because he has more or less personified the cause, and has done more than anyone else in the world to popularize and spread the message, having written and lecture on the subject for decades, long before the IPCC ever existed, long before the idea of global warming became respectable. That counts for a lot, and you should remember that this is not a science prize we’re talking about; the prize was awarded for advancing the cause of world peace, which is greatly influenced by climate change.
Again, Gore is not currently a politician, but aside from that, you are correct. America is one of the worlds biggest polluters, or the biggest overall, and the most resistant to changing its ways, most of that resistance being political in nature. If American politicians were dedicated to environmental protection, then worldwide environmentalism would take a huge leap forward.
And it’s the American wingnuts who lead the charge in the direction opposite from environmentalism.
I’m having trouble understanding the term wing nut. Dictionary.com says
a nut having two flat, widely projecting pieces such that it can be readily tightened with the thumb and forefinger.
person with large, protruding ears
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE HAS BEEN COMPLETELY DE-VALUED!!!!!
YKW: A “wingnut” is a right-wing extremist. From the words “right-wing” and “nut,” possibly with the added inference that a wingnut’s function is to spin like crazy and then remain locked down, unmovable.
Ralph: It’s kind of hard to tell: is that a wingnut site, or is it a parody of a wingnut site? It’s so close to the edge that I have a hard time figuring out which one it is.
Does the term wing nut refer to an extremist, or a right wing extremist? A conservative person might consider a far left politician as someone who spins and then is locked down.
Okay, bad choice of words.
He’s still going around the world with the title of “ex-Vice President”. Yes, not holding office, and he would be in the opposition part if he were. But he still represents his government as an establishment, at least to an extent. Because a part of the Nobel’s prestige then has an effect on the office he once held, even if the current Vice President is a Republican. It’s no different than a university sharing in the prestige of the Nobel, even if it’s awarded to only a single member of the faculty board.
I have nothing against politicians recieving the award, so long as its about stuff politicians are supposed to handle such as diplomatic negotiations and equal civil rights for a people. I understand the prize given wasn’t a science prize. But maybe it should have been. It’s more appropriate to honor scientists and independent organizations if they want to award anyone. Not a politician.