I'm trying to imagine what the initial conversation was like at the Heartland Institute's headquarters. Someone must have said something like, "I've got an idea. As part of our campaign against climate science, let's put up billboards equating those who believe scientific evidence with famous madmen. That'll work wonders to get our message out."
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, because that's what the strange, far-right group did, putting up billboards showing "some of the world's most notorious killers," including "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, who accept climate science. It followed a child-like logical fallacy: if a bad person believes in scientific evidence, then scientific evidence must be wrong.
First, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), a conservative climate-change denier, said he no longer wanted to participate in the group's upcoming conference. Then, the Heartland Institute started losing corporate sponsors. Now, E&E's Evan Lehmann reports the fiasco is "prompting a mutiny among its Washington-based staff, which is decamping for less volatile surroundings."
At the center of the retreat is a contingent of insurance companies and trade groups that donated more than $1 million over the last two years to the libertarian group's Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate in Washington, D.C., for programs related to federal insurance reform.... Other insurers are also cutting ties in a major upheaval that coincides, sources say, with the departure of Eli Lehrer from Heartland's Washington-based center, known by its acronym, FIRE. Lehrer and his staff were shocked by the billboard campaign, which they learned about in an emailed press release from Heartland headquarters. [...]
When Lehrer learned of the billboard campaign, he began calling those companies to warn them, according to sources. During some of those conversations, Lehrer said he was seriously considering leaving Heartland.
"He's gone," the industry source said of Lehrer. "They're negotiating out a departure for him and his team." ... His departure, combined with the retreat of insurers, would almost certainly mean that Heartland's Washington presence provided by the FIRE center would disappear, the source said.
For his part, Heartland's president, Joe Bast, has said, "We do not apologize for running the ad."
No, of course not.
Leave a Comment:
Someone should just run around and paste republicans over global warming.
It's more a case of "my work here is done, Ma'am."
They've succeeded in convincing the American public that there's no such thing as anthropogenic climate change -- nothing to see here, just move along. One reason I'm redirecting my educational efforts to ocean acidification and peak oil.
Worse yet, they've successfully created, or at least encouraged, a deep and irrational hatred towards the environmental movement and scientists. I don't understand humans sometimes. Ok, oftentimes.
D.C. Sessions, don't even bother with peak oil, no one ever believes anything will run out until it is gone. I have talked to people that are convinced there are still dodos somewhere in the world. I smile, agree and suggest they look in the mirror...
Ocean acidification is caused by increased carbon dioxide, aka 'carbonic acid', and the isotope of the measured extra CO2 in the atmosphere has the fingerprint of mankind on it. Ignoring anthropogenic global warming to pay more attention to ocean acidification is like the Unabomber ignoring nitro-glycerine to pay more attention to plastic explosive.
Wow, this billboard promotes climate science. I mean climate change is so obvious that even these wackos believe it.
With such simpletons coming to the fore, our political culture has taken a most dangerous turn!
Alistair Cooke must be turning over in his grave as he had so much hope and regard for our democratic experiment here in America - and the experiment has gone off the rails, and now must search for some sort of collective wisdom to lift us out of the fool's parade our conservative brethren have insisted we be on in this and the past election cycle!
Our current election cycle is caught in a struggle to promote policy (Democrats) or to appeal to bigoted, prejudicial, low-information voters just to seek elected power (Republicans).
What will become of our nation should the latter prevail, and not the former? -Kevo
"What will become of our nation should the latter prevail, and not the former?" -Kevo
That's easy. America- The United States of America- will be dead. Under a President Will Robme, we'll witness the rise of the conservative New Holy Amerikkkan Empire (NHAE).
A violent, ignorant, backwards, world-hated behemoth of corruption, class slavery, greed and bigotry that will inevitably crumble into a has-been before a second civil war splits the nation into six or more new nation-states.
I wish I knew people like you...people with the innate ability to view a picture in its entirety before it completely comes into focus. Thank you for your comment. It reinforces my own belief in the dangerous direction the United States is headed.
"It followed a child-like logical fallacy:..."
Which is standard republican "logic", why are you trying to deny them their "idea"?
And this is why they hate the MSM.......
I still believe in Gravity. Do you?
I still believe in the Sun and the Moon. Do you?
I still believe in Library and Library card. Do you?
I still believe in Reading. Do you?
Go read. I'll be good for America.
Good Grief.
riffing on a comment i saw at balloon-juice the other day
my answer to the billboard's question "why yes i do, thanks for asking....f#ck off!!!"
plus
"you know who else believes in religion? charlie manson"
I support the wisdom of business people knowing when to cut ties with the political extremism associated with their businesses. They need to understand they can only lose business, not gain business when putting half your customer base on the "fringe".
Michael Moore in his autobiography "Here Comes Trouble" tells of one of his earliest movie-making experiences. He was filming an American Nazi Party rally and interviewing its leader. The leader explained that while most people find them reprehensible a few don't and by allowing Moore to film them the Nazis were getting free publicity and attracting new members. If 99 out of 100 people are repulsed, they are after the one who is not. Their "customer base" is very fringe but if millions turn away thousands are attracted.
Exactly! I recently caught a bit of "Master Class" on OWN, and Oprah had a similar "come-to-Jesus" moment when she booked neo-Nazis on her show (in its early days). They not only openly expressed virulent racism (no surprise) but a sympathetic audience member (sympathetic to the neo-Nazis) did, too. Apparently, that's the moment Oprah understood she was not educating her audience about neo-Nazi hatred, she was providing a platform for it.
Chris Hayes used a good metaphor. He said as the Republican Party gets nuttier the more moderate Republicans get "boiled off", leaving it even nuttier. That "boiling off" process explains a lot of how the Republicans keep getting nuttier and nuttier. These nutty stunts drive away more sensible people, leaving even crazier ones behind, so the party gets crazier and crazier as it drives away more normal people.
The Tea Party will end up fracturing the Republican Party. When this happens the Democrats will hold power for a long time.
I'm not surprised that the Heartland Institute expected to get away with this -- for years, right-wingers have been able to get away with saying just about anything. That may be changing now. (Though I won't believe it till Limbaugh's off the air.)
"(Though I won't believe it till Limbaugh's off the air.)"
I won't believe that, period.
Mike Huckabee is being groomed for Crushed Limburger's position. Gwenn Dreck's removal from Faux hasn't changed them a bit.
First, sponsors started to drop Rush. Then, corporations started pulling out of ALEC. Now, Heartland's johns are pulling out as well. We officially have a trend.
I don't understand why Heartland put these billboards up in the Chicago area which is not a bastion of conservatism. Even the Republican suburbs are not that far right. Who did Heartland expect to convince? There is a lot of traffic on the interstate where these were placed, but I doubt anyone was paying attention to the signs because that highway is where cars and trucks are moving well over the speed limit.
This isn't far-fetched at all for extreme conservatives in America. We've already seen Obama compared to Hitler (not to mention being called an "atheist Muslim," whatever that is), we've seen a movie blaming Darwinian evolution for Hitler... Maybe the right is just getting tired of Godwin's Law, and wants to move on to Unabombers and such?
Godwin's Law works because any political discussion involving Republicans naturally leads to Nazis because Republicans are Nazis, "Nazi light" as it were.
I just heard on 'Charlie Rose' today, "a sort of neo-Nazi" party called the "Golden Dawn", split the ticket in the presidential election in Greece 40/40. Is this what we have to look forward to in 2016 if Romney becomes president? Or even if he doesn't
Yes, it is happening right before our eyes. When I first began to learn about Nazis in high school I wondered how that could have happened and now I am watching it first hand.
Who wants to have some fun?
Email the president of the Heartless... I mean... Heartland Institute and let him know that his organization deserves the blowback they are getting from all sides. Reap what you sow, Joe, reap what you sow.
Here is his info, send him an email and then pass the address along to your friends:
Joe Bast
jbast@heartland.org
Thanks, Ethan. I will email the TARD an experience in verbal acuity!
Great!
Keep it goin' folks.
Let them know we're not going to sit back and take it any more.
How does this sound? (Email to Heartland)
Dear Ignorant Criminal
I just wanted to officially register an observation regarding your silly billboards denying global warming and attempting to associate global warming sympathizers with mass murderers. All I can say is....”Bwahaahaahaa!!” Any “conscious” American is aware that the mass murderers are the polluters and their pundits. Anyone studying advertising or psychology understands that you are using an old trick of "projection", meaning you are projecting your sins onto others so that your sins are not noticed. It is what Twit Romney is unsuccessfully trying to do to our President in the General Election by trying to say the Democrats are racists, women haters liars, etc....when we all know the sins he is "outing" are his own sins. In essence, your billboard merely is a huge public statement of personal guilt paid for by your pathetically greedy institution. It is as though you are paying for your opponent's lawyer in a trial. :O (a look of astonishment). Try a new playbook. These plays are stale.
Your prototype, Adolf Hitler, would laugh at your failed attempt at using propaganda. It is my hope that when the people finally tire of the Republican obstructionists and finally elect a reasonable Congress, people who promote pollution and global warming will be held liable for the world and domestic damage they are fostering in the name of profit. People like the Koch brothers and you are beyond deplorable and will one day be prosecuted for world-wide crimes (knowingly killing and permanently injuring innocent people and cover-ups of such illegal activities). This is not far-fetched reasoning. Keep in mind that Bush and Cheney have been found guilty of 5 counts of international war crimes investigated and prosecuted by the Hague, and need to be careful where they travel to outside the U..S. I suspect that, since most developed countries have global warming policies in place, they will be aiming at the biggest polluter soon...the Unites States, and all of its cronies. Good luck with that.
PS. I usually address my letters as "Dear Sir", but you will need to work at gaining that kind of respect. You might want to start with honesty and work your way up to integrity. I suggest a 12-step program...Liars Unanimous.
All undue respect and humiliation
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX MY ASS
Lame. If/then reasoning is so childish...
.
Not surprisingly, Heartland's website still refers to Lehrer as the director of their DC office. I guess if you believe in keeping your content current, you must be a commie or something.
So, using that logic, Hitler was a christian.... that makes all christians Hitler-like?
Oh, wait...
It seems the message I get from this is more like...
Climate change, so real and logic + evidence so easy to follow and understand even a freaking crazy person gets it. So, if you don't get it how freaking crazy are YOU???
...even a cave man can do it....but austrolpithecus cannot! :}
The brilliant bit is that the billboards make it look like heartland.org is Ted Kaczynski's personal website. Way to tarnish the brand, folks.
Yeah, Ted's probably pissed about that. Think he has grounds for a "defamation of character" case?
I think that this effort on their part is just fantastic. It will move them out of mainstream into an extreme right hate group which is what they really are. They will never regain their credibility as a legitimate scientific group that they worked so hard to portray themselves to be. Fantastic!!!
OMG, I just found out yesterday that the earth was not flat!!!
Many people have been clamoring for a Third Party. It looks like the Republicans want it to be them.
Okay, I'm a bit confused. Obviously it's great to see the push back over these ads, but I don't understand why these ads in particular went over the line for donors. There are so many other offensive way the Heartland Institute and similar organizations communicate their ideas. I recall a few years ago Answers In Genesis had a billboard and commercial campaign where a little boy cocked a gun at the camera (the implication being that without God, little kids will become savages), and AIG donors loved it.
They're fighting a losing battle. Only 12 percent of Americans complete deny climate change. The majority of Americans believe that it's happening and something must be done. The only argument is whether it's happening sooner or later.
Even Germany turned on Hitler.