Okay, this video is a little silly and somewhat over-the-top, but – to be fair – Russell Brand is responding to something that is even sillier and even more over-the-top. To be honest, I’ve never been quite sure what to make of Russell Brand. He seems to come across as a bit of self-aggrandizing, twit. However, he seems to realise that he’s a self-aggrandizing twit and he does seem to have a bit of a habit of recognizing and pointing out things that are blindingly obvious. Of course, one does have to be a little careful of things that seem blindingly obvious as sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes, however, they are.
Anyway, if you don’t like Russell Brand, don’t watch this. However, If you do like Russell Brand, you may find it amusing. I also realise that I may be skirting my “don’t discuss conspiracy theories” policy, so if everyone could bear that in mind, it would be appreciated.
...and Then There's Physics 
Lenar can’t afford to understand, can she? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BzItCPk5j4&google_comment_id=z12fxleb0zfxftz5r04ci3rrutrwgpnzusg0k
It’s the standard “someone, somewhere was once in the minority and was proven right. Therefore, because I disagree with the majority, I must be right now too.”
I guess I should have taken your advice and not watched the video as I can’t stand Brand, even though he’s right on this. The problem with his style is that he sounds like one of those people you see standing half-drunk in a pub or a party, pint in hand, telling everyone that “global warming is a hoax”. I guess the best we can say is that he’s on our ‘side’, and more importantly, not on the other side; seeing some young people seem to find him an attractive personality. As you say, at least he ‘gets it’.
john,
I think I have the same problem as you do. He’s just a little too extreme and silly for my tastes.
It’s easy to mock Lenar Whitney. And she very obviously richly deserves it.
It might be more useful though to think about why she’s done this, and what an effective strategy to change the views of her and others like her.
Thinking about similar utterly irrational views, note that nearly half of Americans appear to believe humans were created by God in the last 10,000 years; less than one in six believe the scientific explanation. Why do such evidently incorrect views stick so strongly?
http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/hold-creationist-view-human-origins.aspx
Why are her, and people like her, producing material like this?
I seriously doubt that mocking her will be effective in changing the views of her, or even more importantly, her electorate.
vtg,
I suspect you’re right, but am not convinced that that is an argument against doing so 😉
I hadn’t heard of her, though I have been to Houma. Yummy seafood. Louisiana has a terrible educational system and apparently she examplifies that. Houma is on the delta, the kind of place at the mouth of the Mississippi where you can be miles and miles inland, look across the flat landscape, and see a shrimper cruising up a canal you hadn’t noticed previously. Or where you pull off a rural road to admire the wading birds, and notice a ‘gator silently swimming towards you. A bit of sea rise and they’ll have to rejigger the district boundaries in that part of the world.
dhogaza
re education,
my emphasis
http://www.gallup.com/poll/167972/steady-blame-humans-global-warming.aspx
Not, I think, the point. Brand won’t be expecting to change her views or her electorate’s. What he may manage to do is to engage a group of people who aren’t paying a lot of attention. People who watch Lenar Whitney and are so incensed by her that they might actually rouse themselves from their lethargy and start giving a ****.
I have a more positive view of Brand than others, it seems. He’s clearly very astute and knows what he’s doing. And ask yourself why he’s doing it – he doesn’t need to get attention this way.
OPatrick,
I think you may right, but I don’t think that suggests that my comment that he comes across as a self-aggrandizing twit is wrong though 🙂
That’s certainly true, but, as you say, recognising it in himself rather changes the perspective on whether he is or not. cf certain other prominent participants in the debate – a certain Lord comes to mind.
Yes, a good point.
I like Russell Brand. He does say outlandish things at times and he’s often politically incorrect, but I find myself agreeing with him more often than not. I think his heart is in the right place and he has a very nice beard. If anyone’s a twit in that video it’s Lenar Whitney.
Um. Well, if you say so, Rachel.
Ugh. I didn’t know about Lenar Whitney until today, and I’ve never been to Houma. But I did grow up in Baton Rouge, so I’m not surprised that Whitney’s playing “punch the scientists” to get votes. It’s practically a requirement down there.
This is especially sad because the Mississippi floods have been hitting Louisiana hard over the last few years. The 2011 Mississippi River floods forced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to open the Morganza Spillway for the first time since 1973, which saved Baton Rouge at the cost of flooding thousands of homes in the Atchafalaya basin, threatening about 25,000 people.
I love beards on men. I think they look really nice.
I should have also said that Russell Brand is quite funny. He makes me laugh and who doesn’t want to laugh? I also think humour is very important in contentious topics like climate change.
Depends on the man. And – whisper it softly – I hear we may have passed Peak Beard and a reversal of trend may be in the offing.
@DumbSci
Yes, it’s not so much Mississippi burning, these days, is it?
For Rachel:
A climate scientist and a climate change denier walk into a bar. The denier says, bartender, show me your strongest whiskey. The bartender says, this one here. It’s 95 percent alcohol. The denier slams down his fist and leaves the bar in a hurry. The scientist says, you know, that’s the problem with these guys. You show them the proof, and they still don’t buy it.
Sorry, I’m clean shaven
BBD,
But the Beardland Institute say that we have enough beards to last for hundreds of years and that the poor would suffer if we deprived them of their chance to have beards.
vtg,
Should really have been 97 percent for full effect.
Yeah, BBD. Beards are cool. They’re like bow ties. Bow ties are cool.
For instance, these short segments on GRACE at 20:00 and 26:50 are ~1000% more credible because of beard. The only way it could’ve been more credible would involve a bow tie, a fez, and Sagan’s corduroy jacket. Maybe next time.
Haha, VTG.
Regarding peak beard, BBD, I have heard this too but it’s not a fad for me. I liked them before they became popular. I also have a theory about beards which if you knew it, you’d all be growing one 😉
VTG: I often wonder why people like Lenar Whitney say the things they say. In this case its hard to separate her beliefs from obvious propaganda. I think a lot of hard line conservative people really do think like that. The double think required to achieve it is astounding. Buy more oil to deal with problems in oil countries. (Folks… oil is global. You cannot stop it. FYI, Canada import’s oil\diluent from all those countries to manufacture the tar sands. Sooo… we gotta build the Keystone XL?)
In Canada Stephen Harper has silenced that kind of talk within the conservative party, and there is a rift growing between the moderates and the extremists. (Harper is personally on the extreme side.) Currently, conservative politicians are not permitted to speak in public, and Harper has a special group monitoring what they say lest some nut job (like a Lenar Whitney) tarnish the conservative image.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/08/harper-government-monitors-backbench-mps_n_3240080.html
Unicorns are real tangible and provable.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/25097986/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/unicorn-deer-found-italian-preserve/
What Lenar Whitney spouted is not real tangible or provable.
I had the impression that 95 proof would be 47.5% by volume but just learned that in UK it was about 51% as long as that unit was used.
I don’t really like my beard, but I don’t want to shave everyday and get 5 o’clock shadow at 11am. Then I was introduced to some clever guys who didn’t shave off their beards. I just shave with a 3/8 on my trimmer, that way I can get away with quite a few days between shaves.
I have to completely shave (my beard) if I go to oil rigs. You need to be able to get a gas mask on skin tight lest you inhale some H2S. 10 PPM you smell rotten eggs, 100 ppm you suffer from oxygen asphyxiation, 300 PPM your nervous system ceases.
The biggest problem is how the heck do you keep the sink clean? Seriously! Those whiskers get everywhere and plug the sink. What are you guys doing about it?
I agree. The beard at 26:50 is very nice 🙂
Thanks Rachel. I was pleasantly surprised to see the blunt 26:50 beard make it through editing.
AOM: I had the same problem, so now I put a trash can in the shower and trim over it, then rinse away the few whiskers that miss.
I’m not going to watch it again to check, but didn’t Russell miss Lenar Whitney arguing that Antarctica has been colder than ever, so polar bears are having a hard time?
Polar bear tourists in the deep south?
What a small world. Lenar Whitney is behind Edwin Edwards in the polls. I grew up a few blocks from his house and was in class with his granddaughter when he won the 1991 governor’s race. Louisiana politics are so horrifyingly anachronistic that these ubiquitous bumper stickers actually made sense: “Vote For the Crook. It’s Important.”
History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes.