FOX attacks The Lorax for "indoctrinating" our children towards sustainability, environmentalism.

reply to post by kosmicjack


Wow. Very nice.

In response to the mod's post, I'd like to point out that these Dr. Seuss books, which apparently teach morals without appearing to teach them, are comparable to the modern advanced textbooks deliberating on the subjects....

as the Bible is comparable to the actual science of our reality and universe.

Just thought I'd mention that. Don't allow this to derail the thread; carry on with the...erm, Dr. Seuss theorems!

This reminds me of the people who wanted the LOTR: The Two Towers movie name changed b/c of 9/11.....and didn't realize the book had been written decades earlier.

reply to post by mc_squared


Stop warring with children, both sides STOP IT!!!

Perhaps someone should point out these are movies and nothing more. Quite simply when one thinks about it!

Although from what I have seen, read and heard about Fox; this doesn't surprise me one little bit - hell even my cat has heard about fox

I like how some people think "the lorax" is indoctrination for "the commie liberal hippy tree loving scum!..."

It's been a long time since I watched "the Lorax" but I do remember it and from what I remember, it gave sage advice and sound wisdom to kids, because from what I remember it was against industrialism or capitalism, but against rampant mechanized destruction of the environment for the sake of profit.

The grinch like creatures in the cartoon, weren't just cutting down trees to make stuff they needed, they were systematically clear cutting every single tree in the forest and dumping toxic waste in the water to boot, for the pure sake of profit and greed and any society that does that, will destroy it's environment and itself.

The funny thing is real conservatives not the fake conservatives you have running around today, know the value of preserving and caring for the land, hardly socialist indoctrination, just sound wisdom. I mean any hunter knows you cut down every tree on your hunting lease, you won't have many deer for long, and any farmer knows they start dumping toxic waste on the ground you won't have many yields for long.

And if you look around the world today, it doesn't look so good,and the main reason is because like the grinch like creatures in "the lorax" we have cast away virtues like reason and wisdom and now there seems to be only two guiding "virtues" to modern society, fame and profit. We, won't do things that should be done, because their is no profit in it and we do many things, we should not do, because profit can be made from it and in the end that is not "capitalism" or "free market forces" at work, it's just ignorance and stupidity.

of course fox news, railing against an old children's book doesn't surprise me at all. After all Fox news, fully supports the "drill baby drill" and "frak it!...let's frack it all!" crowd; so, I am sure, for them looking at those insane profit seeking grench creatures in "the Lorax", is like looking in a mirror and they don't really like what they see. It probably feels like a personal attack on them...so of course they re actively attack back.

And in closing I would like to say, I am not against energy production and fossil fuels in general, just rampant and idiotic destruction of environment for the sake of profit. I am also against profit being the bottom line and guiding force for every action in our whole society; that isn't capitalism, that is ignorant and rampant greed and really that is what the wise little lorax was trying to warn us all about.

Also, we should be moving away from fossil fuels anyway, since they are not going to be abundant forever and better that we have an alternative and a backup plan, because if not we will lose all of our industrialized and mechanized society, when metaphorically those spigots run dry.

Originally posted by mc_squared
reply to post by Blaine91555

 

Why is it you automatically have to degrade this to some ridiculous far-left vs far-right thing? Issues of sustainability and environmental responsibility should be all about common sense and not politics.


This is exactly the sort of polemic nonsense FOX tries to drown the conversation in.

Because that's exactly what it is. Both sides doing the same thing instead of working together. A great deal of effort goes into keeping us divided to control us, don't you think?

Which is smarter do you think? Both sides continuing to be intolerant of each others views and engaging in smearing one another, or both sides ignoring the attempts by their respective Parties and coming together to find solutions?

Look where gridlock has gotten us. Nowhere fast. This thread and that report are the same exact thing.

If my obsession that the best thing for our futures is to learn to get along and work together, in spite of the attempts by both extremes to keep us divided is bothersome, ignore my posts.

reply to post by Blaine91555

I fully agree, the divisiveness is crippling us all. But who do think does more of it, Fox, or the other outlets? Who does more fear mongering? I guess it could be just opinion, but I think Fox is leading the battle in divisiveness.
We should call it out wherever we see it, but I just don't think the other outlets are so blatant with their madness.

spec

reply to post by mc_squared


I honestly get sick to my stomach watching this kind of stuff and knowing that there are morons out there who eat up Fox News like its candy.

Since when is environmentalism a bad thing? Are we supposed to want to rape the planet harder and faster? Is there something wrong with wanting to treat our home with respect? Here's an analogy, let's say you're house is on fire, you've got a limited amount of time before all the wood in your house is used up by the fire. The normal sane person wants less of their house and less of their stuff to be burned, certain people however seem to want to take a flamethrower to that house and burn it up all the faster. So the question becomes, did the Republicans take out an insurance policy on the planet Earth? Because they're acting like deliberate arsonists... maybe that's why Newt Gingrich wants a colony on the moon.

By the way this message is an old one, the Lorax is from the 70s, and of course there's Woodsy Owl and Smokey the Bear. In the case of Woodsy Owl we have a conservation message from a government source, the US Forest Service, clearly some dark conspiracy there eh? HOW DARE they teach people to love the planet they live on!

Also the demonization of the Occupy movement continues to baffle me. I know that politicians are in the pockets of the rich but the least the Republicans could do is PRETEND to care about the average working-class American, instead they play their cards openly kissing the rears of the rich to the detriment of all others.

reply to post by Blaine91555


Ok - so please explain to me where "the middle" even is then?

Because that's the thing: the whole far-left vs. far-right thing is a total farce. Or at least one half of it is - since it's constantly pointed at by these extreme far-right idealogues so they can have some sort of false boogie man to use as a metric anytime someone calls them out on their BS.

What is a "far-leftist"?? You would think it would be some sort of radical card-carrying communist, but no - in FOX News world, I'm part of "the far-left liberal agenda" because I:


- believe we should take care of our environment and manage our natural resources properly instead of exploiting them.
- think capitalism has transformed government and big business into a mangled, corrupt plutarchy.
- have a degree from a university and know what the term "plutarchy" refers to.
- believe in evolution, and science in general.
- come from a country that has socialized medicine.
- find Jon Stewart funny AND informative.
- read The Lorax when I was a kid.

(etc)


You know, ironically enough where I'm from - a big city in Canada - most people consider me a tad conservative. It's all relative.

But I'm really sick of hearing this tired excuse about everything these demagogues preach being acceptable because the far-left is just as bad. The actual far-left is a fringe group that doesn't even factor into this conversation. But according to the fundamentalists on FOX anything that so much as looks funny at their free market values is far-left, including Dr. Seuss!

So how are you supposed to "meet in the middle" on a scale like that?

IMO - there is definitely too much rhetoric and finger pointing from both sides of the aisle, but the far-right are the clear-cut source for the extreme polarization because they're the only ones so stubbornly removed from anywhere near the middle.

But of course if you even remotely criticize them for that - it makes you "far-left", and therefore just as bad

reply to post by mc_squared

FOX attacks The Lorax for "indoctrinating" our children towards sustainability, environmentalism

I generally avoid pointless threads like this but... in this instance, a brief reply.

1. 'Sustainable' is a new politically powered word that has no real definition beyond what is applied by those who use it. If it serves a political agenda, then it can be sustainable. If it doesn't, it will be labeled unsustainable.

2. Environmentalism is not what it was when the moment first gained respect and notability back in the 1970s. Today is represents and empowers certain political agendas first, and whatever is left of mother Earth's environment someplace after.

3. The notion that ALL conservatives or alL liberals think a certain way is really no different than racism. You take millions upon millions of complete strangers and tag them negatively based on a very, very few.

Politics is the single dirtiest, divisive concept ever spit forth by our species. Those who practice it and claim faux high ground using it from either pole, are mostly misguided cesspool floaters.

have a wonderful 2012.

Talk talk talk.

I think we'll be arguing amongst ourselves as the sun expands to engulf our planet rather than finding a way offworld. Provided we don't damage the biosphere to a point at which life of our type is no longer possible.

What is actually being done to ensure we have these things that are being argued over?

I am the Lorax...

Think globally act locally.

Sounds trite, but it has significant truth to it.

-Find an issue you can reach out and touch
-Find others with as much passion
-Organize and act, write letters to officials and local media outlets

Have a goal, if you don't know where you are going, you won't get anywhere or make anything happen.

We as a species are comprised of both saints amd sinners and none of us are purely one of those or the other but rather are a blending of the two. It is individual decisions and actions which determine what will be made manifest.

What actions are you taking?

What will be the result of the decisions you make today?

Think about what could be accomplished if we ever did get our act together and made a determination that we would slough off the rampant desire for profit and control.

Fame and profit, as has been mentioned, are the only two things that so much of our society has been taught to pursue that to do anything else is either ignored or denigrated.

Trust me, I know first hand how such actions (attempting to save something of value for reasons other than profit) are used as cause for attack.

I have been labelled Liberal because I would see a magnificent tree saved rather than a new strip center/convenience store erected in it's place. Such lables are merely another means of attempting to control the perceptions of those who have as narrow field of view. A bit and bridle to go along with the blinders of mass media. Tug in one direction or another and the populace obediently canters of in the indicated direction.

Big oil
Big pharma
Big business
Big government

Maybe the problem is "Big"

Once you have any sort of organization, you have people who will do whatever they can to gain control of that organization.

As Frank Herbert wrote, "it's not that power corrupts. It's much more subtle than that. Power attracts the corruptable." (Paraphrased, it's been a while since I read the book this quote is in but the sentiment is the same)

Ergo, absolute power attracts the absolutely corruptable.

Another bit of wisdom from fiction:

"The whole damn system is wrong!"
Lisa Simpson

And soon t-shirts will indoctrinate children to necromancy, and the internet is actually satan in disguise, and reading leads to homicidal sociopaths. (sarcastic)
Coming from fox, I am not surprised.

reply to post by mc_squared


Not that I like FOX (actually hate them), but didnt Dr. Suess admit to this is basically what the story is about?

The Borrowers is an old English novel, it has absolutely nothing to do with indoctrinating the youth.

The Borrowers is a children's fantasy novel by the English author Mary Norton, published by Dent in 1952. It features a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of an English house and "borrow" from the big people in order to survive. Alternatively, The Borrowers is the series of five novels including four sequels that feature the same family after they leave "their" house.[1]

en.wikipedia.org...

FOX news should not be perpetuating these types of Conspiracy theories.

reply to post by mc_squared


They already publicly stated that they are against "critical thinking", this is just the next step.

The funny thing is, when Fox tried to enter the Canadian market they were told "fine, but just so you know, if you lie during news segments you will have to pay a fine". Of course they promptly decided to stay out of Canada.

You'd have to be a moron to consider Fox a legitimate "news" source