Expat Texan

Did its best to derail nuclear energy development in the US.  The movie (starring Jane Fonda) was even more alarmist, and ended with a cautionary note about how the world could be destroyed by nuclear reactors run amok.  It was a work of fiction used to create a “thriller” meant to influence public attitudes about nuclear power.

Self explanatory.  Global warming hysteria dressed up as science to scare a generation into…what?  Apparently, this Amazon issue was printed before global warming became “climate change”.

Probably the most damaging of the lot.  Ecological policy driven by hysteria that has resulted in the deaths of millions worldwide. But we can take comfort in knowing that these people died ecologically friendly, natural deaths.

The environmental crusade against DDT began with Rachel Carson’s antipesticide diatribe “Silent Spring,” published in 1962 at the height of the worldwide antimalaria campaign. The widespread spraying of DDT had caused a spectacular drop in malaria incidence–Sri Lanka, for example, reported 2.8 million malaria victims in 1948, but by 1963 it had only 17. Yet Carson’s book made no mention of this. It said nothing of DDT’s crucial role in eradicating malaria in industrialized countries, or of the tens of millions of lives saved by its use.

Instead, Carson filled her book with misinformation–alleging, among other claims, that DDT causes cancer. Her unsubstantiated assertion that continued DDT use would unleash a cancer epidemic generated a panicked fear of the pesticide that endures as public opinion to this day.

But the scientific case against DDT was, and still is, nonexistent. Almost 60 years have passed since the malaria-spraying campaigns began–with hundreds of millions of people exposed to large concentrations of DDT–yet, according to international health scholar Amir Attaran, the scientific literature “has not even one peer reviewed, independently replicated study linking exposure to DDT with any adverse health outcome.” Indeed, in one study human volunteers ate DDT every day for over two years with no ill effects.

So, any need to be added to the list?

Oh, yes - what do my top 3 all have in common?

Want me to buy your stuff?  Then don’t tell me I’m a moron for doing so.

The evidence is clear: “Man as idiot” isn’t going over very well these days.

Defenders of the advertising status quo generally put forth the following arguments: Males are “privileged” and “it’s men’s turn,” so it’s OK to portray them this way, and that men simply don’t care how they’re portrayed. Both of these arguments are highly questionable.

Think it’s just men who care about how they are portrayed?  Guess again.

Our campaigns have drawn widespread support from women, who generally do not like to see their sons, husbands and fathers put down. As Rose Cameron, senior VP-planning director and “man expert” at Leo Burnett, says: “One of the great markers [society] looks to about the intelligence of a woman is her choice of husband. So if advertisers position men as idiots in the husband scenario, then you’re commenting on her smarts. Women have told us, ‘If you want to get on my good side, you do not show my husband as the idiot.’”