We're just kidding about Lenin, but FoxNews has called out a popular educational video for being Marxist. Is it? Despends on who you ask.
(Illustration by Jake Turcotte)Photos (1 of 1)
Education video or harbinger of Marxist revolution? We report, you decide.
By Matthew Shaer | 05.14.09
“This is community-college Marxism in a pony tail,” Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute told FoxNews.com this week.
His pony-tailed target? Annie Leonard, an environmental activist and filmmaker. About a year and a half ago, Leonard created a video called “The Story of Stuff,” which has been viewed millions of times on YouTube. (It’s also available on DVD, and a book is forthcoming.) The bulk of Leonard’s presentation is explanatory: this is how all our stuff gets made, and this is where it goes when we toss it in the garbage. We have lots of stuff, Leonard says, but how often do we think about where it came from?
(As George Carlin once said, “Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore. Did you ever notice when you go to somebody else’s house, you never quite feel a hundred percent at home? You know why? No room for your stuff.”)
Propaganda?
Since 2007, the video has been adopted by hundreds of schools across the nation as an educational tool. But Fox isn’t buying it:
[Leonard] has an online hit with “The Story of Stuff,” a 20-minute video that is being used in thousands of schools to explain America’s dangerous obsession with material things — and one that some critics are calling a misleading diatribe against capitalism.
The critic, apparently, is Horner, the author of “Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud and Deception to Keep You Misinformed,” and “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism.” Horner doesn’t like environmentalists very much, and he certainly doesn’t like environmentalism being taught in public schools.
In an article published last year, Horner decried, among other things, the placement of thermometers on “asphalt parking lots, black tar roofs, airport tarmacs, and even hanging directly above barbeque grills,” which was ostensibly raising panic about soaring global temperatures.
Horner continued:
Such childishness is only the tip of the iceberg of outrages employed to advance an ideological agenda. Our schools torment those whom they are charged with protecting from abuse, with night terrors among the less egregious outcomes. Their brainwashing includes hate mail campaigns to skeptics, reporting on their parents’ willingness to adopt an agenda, and even emotional breakdown requiring institutionalization.
Picking a fight
On its website, FoxNews takes up where Horner left off, and picks apart four stretches of “The Story of Stuff.” Three of those sections, we’re told, are misleading, and one is false. Is Fox correct? Hard to say. The article’s authors didn’t bother interviewing any professional scientists, and were unable to get a quote – one way or another – from Leonard. The lone outside voice is Mr. Horner’s.
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2. Ed Wolcott | 05.14.09
A greatly oversimplified, (to the point of inaccuracy) presentation. While America is hectored about using too much and wasting too much (there is some truth to this charge) the bit I watched devoted all its effort to condemning the making of an item, and never considered the benefits of an item, such as a car or cell phone, and never considered recycling,use of renewable resources, better production of energy and other ways we can reduce the impact of consumption.
3. truffie | 05.14.09
hmmm… ‘you decide’?
…and then you fake up the graphics with a credit to Vladimir Lenin? - looks like you’ve decided already…
4. Joshua Brown | 05.14.09
If it’s Marxist, than it’s evil. If it’s socialist, than it’s Marxist. And if it’s liberal, than it deserves to be hung, drawn, and quartered. The mindset of the talking-head “conservative”, in a nutshell. And if this video IS Marxist propaganda, then it’s pretty weak, considering I don’t see capitalism collapsing in any dramatic way.
5. JWWoida | 05.15.09
The words Fox and News shouldn’t be used in the same sentence unless it’s about a small dog-like animal with a long tail!
6. Andrew | 05.15.09
Of course Fox is full it. You shouldn’t even be repeating their BS.
This kind of “Fox says this, but other people think that” is poor reporting. If you want to cover this story (even in a blog post), dig into it.
And, above all, don’t run it with a misleading graphic. A lot of people won’t read the caption to find out that you’re kidding.
7. Fred Missimer | 05.15.09
Railings and admonishments against obsession with material wealth have a deep and venerable history in this nation. They’re as American as apple pie. A century and a half ago, Thoreau warned us against becoming “possessed by our possessions” and urged us to simplify our lives. Before him the Quakers, and pietists of many stripes offered similar advice and models. In our times we have such brilliant minds as E.O.Wilson and the late Loren Eiseley sounding complementary themes. There is nothing radical at all in Annie Leonard’s little film, only in the stident overreaction of Chris Horner.
8. yeos | 05.15.09
The video is interesting in that it does appeal to several very important issues - waste management, over consumption, pollution just to name a few. However there is some validity in saying that “greatly oversimplified, (to the point of inaccuracy)” (Wolcott). To begin with, Annie Leonard has a lambasting tone in regards to the government and limits to addressing just the negative sides of the government and the capitalists. For example, when she is listing the problems with the system towards the end, she places emphasis on the government over all other problems and from that one can infer she is initiating a political debate. Another point is, although most of the facts are statistically ‘correct’ (albeit based on various different sources), Leonard uses only the facts which can be oriented to transmit her own message and omits many other facts. In short the selection of her facts are extremely subjective and one-sided lacking completely to take a balanced view of this issue. In retrospect, I do not at all intend to say that her video is ‘bad’,… yes it’s true that there are certain instances where she presents a strong politically ‘liberal’ (some allude to socialist but I frankly think this is a stretch) overtone. However the issues she addresses are not problems just concerning the liberals. The planet is a shared responsibility and regardless of one calls himself - liberal, conservative, republican, capitalist, socialist, the planet is a common responsibility. Any act of trying to avoid this responsibility is shear incompetence if not, if I may permit, immaturity. Therefore in conclusion, I must admit that the video is somewhat biased, however I still duly believe that increasing the awareness of these issues, even if it resorts to presenting a biased opinion of the subject, is necessary from early ages.
9. NaturalHeroes | 05.15.09
THE STORY OF STUFF will air in its entirety in the fourth season of the Emmy award-winning Public Television series, NATURAL HEROES.
Annie Leonard is a natural hero for researching and sharing this information in a way that motivates thought, change, and even anger.
Check to see when it airs on your local Public Television station: http://www.naturalheroestv.com
10. AntonioSosa | 05.20.09
Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov was right when he predicted many would be brainwashed so they would be unable to distinguish reality from communist propaganda, no matter how clear reality is. In 1985, Yuri Bezmenov told us that our enemies were working hard at brainwashing us — through the media, university professors, movie makers, etc. — and would succeed if we did not defend our principles. Please listen to Bezmenov and see if you do not recognize these people: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6KUDv1wzraWhwlBt1
11. HLS | 06.06.09
It is not a “system in crisis.” We have ample natural resources to last several centuries. 50% of tax dollars are NOT going to the DoD. Corporatism is the problem, not corporations. A natural resource is only a “resource” when it is known to be economically exploitable. We have tons of “stuff” currently not regarded as “resources” that could be used productively in the future in ways we don’t yet know–so don’t freak out yet, sheeple. Americans use 30% of the world’s resources, but the US makes up about 30% of the global economy… And I had to shut it off.
This is poorly researched garbage, unfit even for the worst junior college. Anyone who has taken a couple of economics courses (and understood it) knows how stupid this is. Ugh. Is this the state of American education?
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1. Richard Gorman | 05.14.09
Thanks, just watched “Stuff”. Actually, I think the washing machine on my desk is much better than the flat, sleek, chic screen on my neighbor’s, much easier on the eyes. Much better for viewing ingeniously crafted cartoon/commentaries, even had it longer than 6 months. Will wonders never cease.