An Inconvenient Truth -- for blog-surfing jackasses

[sincere]

God, people are so annoying. A gadgety blog I read daily posted a picture of Al Gore's office, admiring his multi-monitor setup and joking about how he needs to get a copy of Conquer the Clutter to combat the rest of his desktop. I think it's a neat setup, personally, although that much clutter would be insane.

Five of the first seven comments are people sneering about how much energy those monitors must use and how Al should turn in his Oscar, and their arguing at anyone who says that bringing the world's attention to a problem threatening the entire planet shouldn't be punished by critiquing his every non-environmentally-friendly breath.

People, what do you want? Are you not allowed to champion a cause unless you're a paragon of every virtue? His three monitors aren't singlehandedly throwing the planet into global warming, and most of the rest of you jackasses also use multiple monitors without giving back to the cause a fraction as much as Al Gore does. He's renovating his house to fix his energy consumption and he has solar panels on his roof that collect so much energy he sells some back to power companies. Those monitors are used to do immense good, okay??

I'm just struck by all of these people complaining about something they themselves do because it comes from someone with a slightly related moral standpoint that might be hypocritical if you look at him with blinders on. He flies commercial now to reduce his environmental impact. A man who once had a private jet. Maybe, just maybe, the private jet was less environmentally friendly? Will they not be happy until he lives in a hut made of sticks on a riverbank, and comes out to rant about the environment unshaven and clad only in furs?

Comments

[apapazukamori.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree with you more. They're so keen to pounce on every inconsistency they think they see, that they neglect to remember that, with all his changes on his house, he's probably not using much fossil-fuel energy at all anymore. And if he is, he's planting a tree to offset it.

With all the information that's available on how to live a high-tech and modern, yet environmentally-friendly lifestyle, you would think we could shake the stereotype of all eco-friendly people being unwashed, commune-living hippies. -o-

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

With all the information that's available on how to live a high-tech and modern, yet environmentally-friendly lifestyle

For serious! A lot of the modern, eco-friendly stuff is actually more eco-friendly than the unwashed commune model. Heck, I think Al Gore is more eco-friendly than the freaking ashram I went to. *eyeroll*

I guess if you're enjoying it, it doesn't count as eco-friendly. :P

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

NO. In much the same way that all health food and organic food tastes like crap, all fun and convenient things are bad for the environment.

My mom is trying to put me on Weight Watchers again.

[hauntedreality.livejournal.com]

*blinks* Does she have that kind of power?

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

It happens over the phone. My mom is Jewish and scary (http://kay-willow.livejournal.com/tag/my+mother).

[hauntedreality.livejournal.com]

It seems Jewish moms wield the guilt power as much as my Catholic mom. *Hugs!*

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

I saw one person insisting that omg Al Gore's energy bills were three hundred gazillion dollars and, I quote, "mine only come out to about $200!" Well, congratulations, but Al Gore lives in a mansion and you live in a three-room apartment. Do you want a Nobel Prize for Obvious with your discovery that big houses use more electricity than little houses?

(Besides, I remember hearing somewhere that the only thing delaying his household from being all but entirely self-sufficient is that there's been delay getting building permits and stuff for the things he wants to do.)

Why some people think that you can EITHER be an environmentalist OR you can have nice things, that's just beyond me. Especially when making nice things good for the environment is getting to be a more and more prevalent industry.

[yashahime.livejournal.com]

Will they not be happy until he lives in a hut made of sticks on a riverbank, and comes out to rant about the environment unshaven and clad only in furs?

No. He'll still fart. And then they'll scream that he's putting methane into the atmosphere. Or they'll screech that he's HARMING the RIVER WILDLIFE.

People like that are never satisfied, and if you want to know the honest truth, I think they're really looking for a way to make themselves feel superior. "Oh, look! If Mr. Environmental Guru does it, and I don't, I must be better than he is even though I litter and drive a gas-guzzling 5-mile-per-gallon behemoth! Ha-ha!" The dumbasses.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

That is exactly what I was thinking. If they mentally make Al Gore out to be a hypocrite, they can just dismiss everything he says because "Al Gore doesn't even do it, what a jackass!" and then go on their merry way, tossing plastic out their Hummer windows on their way to work right down the block.

[ladycrysiana.livejournal.com]

I admit to going ♥ at Al Gore, but even if I didn't, people like that annoy me. People just don't want to listen to him, and saying, "oh, even HE doesn't live like this" makes them feel as if they can disregard any points he might have.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

I always figured it was a "Need some way to rebutt his arguments! Can we argue over his findings? No? Right then, personal attacks it is!" reaction.

Besides, I'm willing to bet that if everyone was willing to make as many concessions as he has already, we'd be in much less of a pickle.