Anthony Watts now has two separate posts ringing with condemnation of Think Progress for a post last year that noted the terrorist Anders Breivik had accused climate science of actually being an eco-Marxist plot (that post disappeared temporarily but now it's back).
Watts to his credit condemned Heartland's revealing billboard campaign but AFAIK has stopped there. I've already shown that HI has done this before, equating Al Gore with Ted Kaczysnki. When I found that Heartland post, I also found another that I haven't written about until now:
Environmental Extremist Gunman Attacks Discovery Channel Headquarters
James M. Taylor, J.D. – James M. Taylor – September 1, 2010
An environmental extremist gunman has entered the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., and has taken a number of people hostage, according to Montgomery County Police. Police are trying to negotiate with the gunman, who may have armed himself with a bomb. Roughly 1,900 employees work at the building, which broadcasts a number of science-related programs.
The gunman has issued a manifesto and a list of demands, much of which reads like an environmental activist wish list....Much like the media largely ignored the environmental extremism that motivated the Unabomber, the mainstream media currently is largely ignoring the Discovery Channel gunman’s environmental motivation.And another, also by James Taylor, J.D.:
Environmental extremist took an ugly turn Aug. 1 when activist James Lee, armed with two guns and several bombs stormed the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., took employees hostage, and attempted to force the Discovery Channel to air environmental propaganda on global warming and other issues. The assault ended in the late afternoon when police shot and killed Lee as it appeared he was preparing to detonate a bomb and kill some or all of the hostages....
Gore Movie as ‘Awakening’
Lee was first arrested for engaging in disruptive environmental protesting outside Discovery Channel headquarters in 2008. At the time, he explained he had had an environmental “awakening” after seeing Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth.
In An Inconvenient Truth, Gore bemoans the fact that peaceful, democratic means have not motivated people to enact his desired global warming restrictions. “I used to believe in democracy,” Gore says near the end of the film.
History of Violent Rhetoric
In 2006, Grist magazine staff writer David Roberts wrote, "When we've finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we're in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards—some sort of climate Nuremberg.” The penalty imposed in Nuremberg for war crimes was death....
In 2008 NASA global warming activist James Hansen said CEOs of fossil energy companies “should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature." The penalty for high crimes against humanity is death....According to Anthony Watts, noting these parallels is evil when Think Progress does it. I've previously shown one other blog post where Heartland is substantially worse. By Watts standard, that post and these two new ones also deserve condemnation.
For my part, I did not bring up these two posts when I found the first one equating Gore and Kaczynski. I think the second of these posts is particularly stupid and inaccurate, but remember it's from James Taylor, and it's unsurprising that he doesn't understand the range of penalties available at Nuremberg and the International Criminal Court. Still, I think these don't equate environmentalism as a whole with violent nutcases. I don't see them as strong arguments, nor do I see the Breivik argument as that strong, but they're not innately wrong.
Watts disagrees with me on Breivik. Presumably then he disagrees with Heartland on all three of the blog posts in addition to the billboards, and I hope he says so.
UPDATE Eli: Anthony is going after Nick Stokes. More hockey stick jumping.
