Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The UN Agenda 21 conspiracy

We just get crazier and crazier in this country, don't we? From the New York Times:
Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They brand government action for things like expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space as part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens toward cities.

They are showing up at planning meetings to denounce bike lanes on public streets and smart meters on home appliances — efforts they equate to a big-government blueprint against individual rights. ...

“It sounds a little on the weird side, but we’ve found we ignore it at our own peril,” said George Homewood, a vice president of the American Planning Association’s chapter in Virginia.

The protests date to 1992 when the United Nations passed a sweeping, but nonbinding, 100-plus-page resolution called Agenda 21 that was designed to encourage nations to use fewer resources and conserve open land by steering development to already dense areas. They have gained momentum in the past two years because of the emergence of the Tea Party movement, harnessing its suspicion about government power and belief that man-made global warming is a hoax.

It would be funny, if it weren't so serious. Of course, there have always been loons, but there seems to be far more of them these days. Much of that could be the poor economy. When times are bad, fear can drive people to complete lunacy.

But I think there's more to it than that. The Republican Party encourages this stuff, as does their mouthpiece, Fox News. And right-wing radio hosts are everywhere, each trying to stand out from the crowd by being even crazier and more inflammatory than the rest.
In January, the Republican Party adopted its own resolution against what it called “the destructive and insidious nature” of Agenda 21. And Newt Gingrich took aim at it during a Republican debate in November. ...

Fox News has also helped spread the message. In June, after President Obama signed an executive order creating a White House Rural Council to “enhance federal engagement with rural communities,” Fox programs linked the order to Agenda 21. A Fox commentator, Eric Bolling, said the council sounded “eerily similar to a U.N. plan called Agenda 21, where a centralized planning agency would be responsible for oversight into all areas of our lives. A one world order.”

In effect, crazy is being used for political advantage.

Now, there aren't that many of these people, but they're loud. They're vocal and they're active. Since the vast majority of Americans are lazy (or just busy), apathetic, and ill-informed, organized conspiracy enthusiasts have an advantage that far outweighs their numbers.

And the Republican Party has a lot of experience in using loud, active, crazy people for political advantage.
At a Board of Supervisors meeting in Roanoke in late January, Cher McCoy, a Tea Party member from nearby Lexington, Va., generated sustained applause when she warned: “They get you hooked, and then Agenda 21 takes over. Your rights are stripped one by one.”

Echoing other protesters, Ms. McCoy identified smart meters, devices being installed by utility companies to collect information on energy use, as part of the conspiracy. “The real job of smart meters is to spy on you and control you — when you can and cannot use electrical appliances,” she said. ...

In some cases, the protests have not been large, but they are powerful because officials are concerned about the Tea Party.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Gingrich has called Agenda 21 an important issue and has said, “I would explicitly repudiate what Obama has done on Agenda 21.”

It's been my experience with conspiracy enthusiasts that reason is useless. If you don't see what they see, it's either because you're naive or because you're part of the "conspiracy" yourself. Well, to paraphrase Jonathan Swift, you can't reason people out of a stance they didn't reason themselves into.

But you know how gullible many people become when they hear stuff like this. There's no smoke without fire, right? And with Republicans from Fox News on down pushing the insanity like crazy, you really have to wonder what's going to happen next.

This isn't just about crazy conspiracy enthusiasts, it's also about a political party willing to use such people, no matter what it does to our country.

7 comments:

Jeff said...

Thought you might find this amusing. It's called "The 7 Types Of Republican Idiots."


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/11/23/the-7-types-of-republican-idiots/

Anonymous said...

You are another liberal minded idiot that actually believes mere humans can control the weather. Tell that to all the stranded ill prepared morons who ignored common sense, built on a shore line and then actually thought the sea would never surge and it is pure conspiracy to have a little food on hand for an emergency. Yes go ahead and laugh . As for me and my house we shall stand for freedom and common sense.

Bill Garthright said...

Do you wonder why most people laugh at you, Anonymous? Do you really think that we don't stand for "freedom and common sense"?

We ridicule what's ridiculous, that's all. And it has absolutely nothing to do with "controlling" the weather or keeping a little food on hand where hurricanes are possible.

If you actually care about what's true and what isn't, you need to stop letting your fear control what you think. This isn't some vast conspiracy by people who hate freedom.

At most, it's people, just like you, who might have a slightly different idea of what would be beneficial for everyone. Reasonable people can disagree. We're only laughing at the unreasonable.

Anonymous said...

The truth is those so called progressive liberals are nothing more than sheeple who have given up the right of independent thinking just to have big government do their thinking for them, and whom they blindly follow.

The UN's ultimate agenda is to become Master of the Universe with Agenda 21 spearheading their effort. Watch closely over the next few years and you will see this develop as nations enter into various Treaties with the UN as if they would other sovereign nations. This has already begun with the recent UN Treaty on Arms Trade Control. Next to follow will be some enforcement mechanism.

I fully understand the reason independent thinkers on the right side of the spectrum refuse to roll over and succumb to a left wing, Marxist agenda to inventory and control the universe. Nobody can dispute that we're already seeing Agenda 21 in action in the US by lowering of the standard of living and dumbing down of Americans through the educational system.

Democrat, Rosa Koire explains this quite well in her book, 'Behind The Green Mask'.

Bill Garthright said...

Anonymous, I can't tell if that's a parody or if you really believe such crazy things.

A "left wing, Marxist agenda to inventory and control the universe"? OK, that's definitely a parody. Nice try, but you're channeling Glenn Beck a little too blatantly, I think.

Anonymous said...

"lowering of the living standard and dumbing down Americans through the educational system." That has got to be one of the most patently ridiculous comments I've ever read. Sometimes the stupidity in this country is painful.

Bill Garthright said...

Oh, yeah, I know exactly how you feel!