Big thanks to Lenny Ghoul for today’s post.
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I just watched the most bizarre piece of propaganda I think I’ve ever witnessed. It was a “documentary” called Pandora’s Promise.
Pandora’s Promise is basically a pro nuclear power film, that tries to sell people on the idea that nuclear power is the right course for the future of the world. While I do largely agree with the premise, what makes the film very odd is that the “documentary” is told from the point of view of leftists environmentalists, selling nuclear as a solution to “global warming”.
As I watched the film, in between laughing at some glaring stupidity contained within it, I was struck by what seemed fascinating at first about how much it down played events like Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi. They really do a good job of using Geiger counters in pre-selected (obviously vetted as safe) areas to sell you that there is no big lingering danger. They even go so far as to make claims of residents who have been living in the hot zones for years with no ill-health conditions at all. They touch on all sorts of things like down playing disasters, and benefits of nuclear power, how safe it can be, how alternatives aren’t cutting it, the whole gambit. Of course once I caught myself getting too wrapped up in it I was reminded how easy these documentaries straight up lie to people and that some vetting will definitely be needed. (more on that later)
It was pretty amazing watching these supposed die-hard lefty environmental nuts start talking about how all the solar and wind power in the entire world doesn’t even make up 1% of the power generated. How in the future, for the third world to grow and thrive into first world societies, we will need triple the power output that we have today. The other alternative power sources, just simply don’t have the capacity to handle such things, and they still rely on gas power back up when there is no wind, or 300 days of sunshine to sustain the demand. It was nice to see at least some real myths busted about solar and wind, for what it was worth.
One of the most intriguing and hysterical parts of the film was that all these pro nuclear lefties were making the case that the people who fear nuclear power have the same mentality as “climate change deniers”. Remember this film was obviously made to appeal to lefties. Something they obviously missed in the film was that later on they pointed out how a bunch of specific political and science lefties got many advances in nuclear power shut down, and how “crazy” and “irrational” their arguments were. Ironically those same “crazy” and “irrational” political and science lefties, just so happen to also be the biggest champions of man-made global warming, a cause the creators of the film, themselves often champion in this piece.
Yes, Al Gore is a loon in this film because he was instrumental in shutting down hordes of government research into making nuclear power safer. But wait. isn’t he the same guy who also believes that global warming is the most serious issue facing mankind? They even asked some major high up professional environmental protesters how they can square the fact that they believe nuclear power is unsafe, yet also believe in “climate change”. As if the two were somehow connected in some sort of bizarre way other than the fact that ignorant lefties are just ignorant. Their entire argument for the anti-nuclear power protesters being unhinged, is in direct conflict with their own views on global warming, citing no facts, skewed data, and ignoring the real science behind it, as well as erroneous predictions and falsified casualty numbers. (sound familiar?)
I kept yelling at the TV things like, “What about ice caps, and polar bears and snow?!”
Again I want to reiterate that I am pro nuclear power. But this film was pretty much what the democrats do to every single issue they touch. It just so happened they picked one that I generally favor, then they ran to extreme ends of the earth with it. So while it’s easy to get wrapped up in the pro nuclear side of it, they went too far, as usual, which is why the damn thing failed miserably in my mind. I got so bad with the Geiger counter stuff that I was practically waiting for them to pour a glass of water from one of the Fukushima Reactors and drink it just to prove how “safe” nuclear power is.
This movie review is just an example of something I’ve really started figuring out on a deep fundamental level lately, which is my entire reason for bringing it up in the first place.
It seems almost impossible these days for anyone to simply tell the truth about anything. It’s this odd path we’ve (universal we) been going down for quite sometime. It seems to have really hit an almost epidemic level lately. It’s as if everyone is so fixated with their own personal pride, to such a level that simply being wrong, or leaving any possible wiggle room on an argument, or cause, or whatever the case might be, it’s worth making up large portions of the argument, just for the sake of winning it, and shutting down any opposition before they can even start.
I often wonder if we have just become totally insane. In the case of this documentary, had they simply told the real truth about nuclear power, and its honest pitfalls, but also its wonderful advancements, without a bunch of bullsh**, it would have sold itself. But no, they had to jump to extremes and lie on the other side of the issue, for no reason at all, which in my opinion, just exposed how much of a fraud the show really is. What happened to just giving people the facts and letting them decide? I’ll tell you what happened! They’ve all grown incredibly stupid and are counting on people to vet the information for them. This whole trying to mold everyone’s opinion of everything all the time, being presented as fact, is getting us nowhere fast.
Do we all have such tremendous egos now, that we think we can become gods of opinion and simply will our stories true? It almost seems that way lately. Looking at the way our society has changed over the last 30 years is mind-boggling. The things we do, the things we say, the arguments we have, the things that are important to us, none of it really makes a whole lot of sense anymore.
Before I get too off the rails, let me close by saying that I fear this unfortunately is typical of most documentaries these days and it’s only going to get worse. “Infotainment” is incredible powerful and yet will probably be a major downfall of our society.
My only piece of parting advice is this. Every time you finish watching what seems to be an intriguing documentary, do your self a favor and spend 10-15 minutes online vetting it. You’d be amazed at how much crap I have been almost sold on until I simply decided to find out for sure.
