ALEC Cries Foul

Corporate members like Mc Donalds and Pepsi are all of a sudden finding the right wing "legislative council" a bit too toxic (thanks to Stand Your Ground Law) and ALEC is upset. They are denouncing their foes as "ideological" , insinuating that they stand above ideology.They are just for free markets and privitization and what's ideological about that?

Some will point to this as an example of how activism can work, pressuring companies through petition and boycott. But it took the Spectacular death of Trayvon Martin to bring this odious association to light. It is not the specific work of specific think tanks which should give us pause, but their hegemonic domination in DE-POLITICIZING any last vestige of discourse in this country. The Market is all the conversation you need folks, it (like Father,) knows best.

From today's NYTimes:
“Most people in the country are looking at everything that’s happened; it just seems to be one disaster after another after another,” said Anthony A. Leiserowitz of Yale University, one of the researchers who commissioned the new poll. “People are starting to connect the dots.”

The poll opens a new window on public opinion about climate change.

A large majority of climate scientists say the climate is shifting in ways that could cause serious impacts, and they cite the human release of greenhouse gases as a principal cause. But a tiny, vocal minority of researchers contests that view, and has seemed in the last few years to be winning the battle of public opinion despite slim scientific evidence for their position."

A tiny, vocal minority perhaps, but with unlimited cash to spend and that same hegemonic free market ideology put in service as their symbolic ally. Plus, they are not afraid to use Mc Carthyite tactics to smear us poor communists. Shame vanished decades ago.

I am finally getting around to reading Legitimation Crisis by Jurgen Habermas and am amazed at how trenchant and relevant the critique remains. We need this kind of social analysis, not pop-crap like George Lakoff produces or hysterics like Chris Hedges does.