The title of this site, and the term “Green Scare,” of course refers to the similarities between two eras of government repression: the government witch hunt for suspected communists, during the Red Scare, and the government witch hunt for suspected “eco-terrorists,” during the Green Scare. I think the comparison is useful in talking about these issues, because most people have at least a working understanding of McCarthyism, and how guilt by association, loyalty oaths, Congressional hearings, and naming names ruined the lives of many people. But it’s just an analogy, used to make a bigger point–public fears shouldn’t be exploited to push a political agenda.
For some folks, though, green is the new red in another way. It’s not that the Green Scare is the new Red Scare, it’s that environmentalists and animal rights activists have joined forces with the commies!
As usual, at first I just laughed when I saw this, thinking it was yet another consequence of the any-nutjob-can-set-up-a-blog phenomenon. (I love the technology of blogging, but stuff like this really makes me embarrassed to be called a “bloggerâ€).
From the “Zionist Anti-Communist” blog:
This is an open declaration of treason committed against America and the West by the likes of Gore who is the chief propagandist of the Marxist orientated environmental movement. Now even the radicals want to take a step further and openly engage in acts of terrorism in effort to dismantle Capitalism and industralism…
One thing certainly points that major front groups for ALF/ELF such as PETA, Earth First! and Greenpeace International which is a Soviet front group btw are coordinating an effort to economiclly sabotage the U.S. The finger prints of the propaganda of Gore and that of this pro-ALF/pro-ELF website certainly expose that of the “restored” Communist Party…
I must confess, at first I started researching this just because I wanted an opportunity to use this photo from Red Dawn, the classic anti-communist (or anti-war, depending on who you ask) film from 1984. Ooh, wait. Could there be a “Green Dawn” in the works? Americans wake up and find themselves thrust into World War IV, convoys of “eco-terrorists” in hybrid cars roll across the heartland, meat-eaters are forced into prison camps and fed tofu hot dogs. Greenpeace’s “Rainbow Warrior” (or, even more entertaining, Sea Shepherd’s “Farley Mowat”) take on the Navy. And, in the final fight scene, Patrick Swayze dukes it out with Al Gore. (Truth be told, I may have to side with Pat in that fight; Nobody puts baby in a corner.)
But wait. It’s not so funny when the same rhetoric comes from… the president of the Czech Republic?
From the Colorado Springs Gazette (I love how they tried to spin my phrase in the first line):
Some say green is the new red, by which they mean that environmentalists, in their zeal to “save the world,†are acting like the totalitarian bosses of the former Soviet Union. Count us among those who agree with that sentiment. Another in our camp, and one who might have special credibility making such accusations, since his nation was formerly part of the Soviet empire, is Czech President Vaclav Klaus.
In a letter to members of Congress, Klaus last week made the connection between greens and reds explicit, saying that “Communism has been replaced by the threat of an ambitious environmentalism.†Global warming alarm is a new form of religion, warned Klaus, which threatens to trample individual freedoms and wreak economic havoc in its quest to “save the planet,†just as the communism did in the quest for a worker’s paradise.
It gets even weirder. On GreenIsTheNewRed.com I’ve written about the government and corporations rolling back civil liberties and labeling activists as “terrorists.†They’ve pushed for “terrorism enhancement†penalties, passed new terrorism legislation like the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, paid for full-page scare-mongering ads, and gone on an all-out “eco-terrorist†witch hunt.
But Klaus and The Gazette say it’s actually the environmental movement that’s the threat. Those pesky environmentalists are the ones who really seek to “imperil civil liberties,†they say.
Forget domestic spying scandals. Forget racial-profiling, branding Arab Americans as terrorists and spying on Muslim hangouts. Forget no fly lists.
Let’s get priorities straight. It’s those freedom-hating greens who are the greatest threat to the Constitution. They want to roll back corporations’ basic First Amendment rights to pollute the air, clearcut forests, and sell gas-guzzling SUVs. Fascists.