Global Warming Brainwashing

It'll soon be time for mass de-programming. At least we can look at the bright side. When these skulls full of mush grow up and realize we're not all living under water, they'll know what many adults already know. Al Gore is a blithering idiot. And in this case, their mother is an idiot.

This insipid piece in the LA Times exemplifies the outright propaganda efforts well underway in our centers of mass indoctrination (schools) and the gullibility of far too many adults.

GLOBAL WARMING is a bit like sex: Long before you think it's time to explain it to your children, they've already heard the mixed-up details on the playground.

I asked my 11-year-old son what he knew. "The water is going to rise about 20 feet, and we're all doomed," he said matter of factly, before dashing off to slug his brother.

Two recent national polls, taken in the wake of "An Inconvenient Truth" and mounting news coverage of heat waves and hurricanes, show the majority of Americans now see global warming as a personal threat. And apparently, word has spread to the prepubescent set that they'd better see the San Diego Zoo while it's still dry.

Apocalyptic fears have shadowed U.S. childhood before this. Who among us boomers doesn't remember all that Cold War ducking and covering? But global warming is profoundly scarier. For starters, to trigger a nuclear holocaust, somebody has to be the first to bomb. To trigger eco-Armageddon, all we need do is continue to ignore leading scientists' warnings.

Besides, quite unlike during the Cold War, there's no evidence that Washington has recognized this crisis. That leaves parents — hard-wired, unlike politicians, to engage in long-term thinking, calculate risks and buy insurance — in a bind. Given our government's glacial response to real-time melting glaciers, how can we help our kids cope?

When it comes to displaying anxiety, adolescents are usually good at jamming parental radar. The essence of juvenile cool is to pretend nothing bothers them, which, combined with shorter attention spans, may be why my son could so deftly juggle species doom and sibling rivalry. And yet as much as kids have faith in their own immortality, experts agree that they're deeply worried.

After all, our children aren't dummies. Even if they don't read the news, they overhear the TV or the anxiety in their parents' voices, discussing the strangeness of yet another balmy midwinter day. It's like so many of us who grew up not talking about the drinking dads and depressed moms; what always makes it worse is when adults pretend nothing's wrong.

So the myth of global warming now is more frightening than nuclear war?

Pathetic.