Video: Stossel smears global warming theorists as socialists

Don't you just love it when someone tells you who you are?  According to John Stossel, people that realize the dangers of global warming and want to do something about it are nothing more than a bunch of socialists.  See how these right-wing scare tactics work?  On Scarborough Country, host Joe Scarborough and author John Stossel tried to team up on Tyson Slocum, who happened to commit the dastardly sin of disagreeing with Stossel's point of view.  Stossel then had to vent:

Click to watch video clip

STOSSEL: "It's a hatred of capitalism.  A hatred of industrial production.  Yes, it's true, we produce more carbon dioxide.  But we are also the cleanest country in the world.  As we get wealthier, the air gets cleaner.  We can afford to do the things that maybe someday if the globe is warming we have to make adjustments.  It's our wealth that will allow us to save the world.  If we let these socialists control our lives, we'll all be worse off."

I watched John Stossel on the ABC News show "20/20" when I was a youngster during the 1990s.  After that, he seemed to disappear until just about now.  Interesting how whenever he is on television, the GOP is not doing quite well at that particular time.

Deep down though, I really don't think he truly believes that environmentalists are socialists.  Stossel just frames his arguments that way.  Like other economic libertarians, his whole goal is to make the other side seem socialist, while hiding the fact that what he really wants to do is defend his lavish lifestyle.  More power to him.  But the whole "socialist" tactic is so 1990s.  People tried that on Clinton, and it only worked the first few hundred times, then everyone tuned it out.
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Other blogs writing about this issue: Occam's Razor's Edge, Yo Sarrian, EnviroWeb, Bullet Palace, Future Geek, 2 Political Junkies.