In the early 1960s a university professor of mathematics wrote funny songs about topical issues. At the link below you can watch/hear him perform one about nuclear weapons killing all of us. It’s titled, “We Will All Go Together When We Go.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs
As my blog’s category for “Health Care Reform” explains, the U.S. spends twice as much per person on health care as other rich nations, but we have far, far worse outcomes in actual health. Other nations recognize that health care is a human right, so they provide nationwide coverage for everyone and — instead of capitalistic insurance companies, etc., — they have streamlined governmental systems that cost half of what health costs in the U.S. Recently some friends shared a link to a short video ad that appeared on the 2021 Super Bowl TV coverage. The comedian Will Ferrell […]
One of the effective — and under-used — strategies of nonviolent resistance to bullies is to use humor and satire. Donald Trump’s exaggerated ego and his cruel and criminal behaviors have made him a perfect object for humor and satire. Consider these: In 2 ½ minutes, this rewrite of the decades-old song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” nails Trump! Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkU1ob_lHCw Here is a 4 ½ minute video of Trump and The Simpsons. This really does need to be watched. It is hilarious, true, and sometimes scary: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7zfso2 A new card for Trump: A new […]
This article is about how we can educate people about the climate by using humor – helping people laugh first – before the educational part comes out. I have long been urging us to use humor to educate people about hard, scary issues such as nuclear weapons, dangerous right-wing politicians, etc. This article’s focus on the climate is applicable to other hard, scary issues: https://grist.org/fix/arts-culture/humor-comedy-engages-people-climate-science/ Here is a GREAT EXAMPLE of how to use humor in our outreach: This movie satirized the Cold War. During the workshops I conduct to strengthen people’s skills in organizing grassroots movements, I encourage […]
Republicans used to denounce “Big Government.” Now Republicans want “Big Government” to inspect the private parts of children who want to play sports at school. VOTERS HATE HYPOCRISY! What if we required Republican politicians to apply this law to themselves? Republican politicians and candidates SAY they are men or women, but how do we know each one is the gender they claim to be? Let’s require Republican incumbents and candidates to show their private parts to medical professionals who can verify that they are the gender they claim to be. “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” […]
During the workshops I conduct to strengthen people’s skills in organizing grassroots movements, I encourage the participants to use humor, wit and satire in raising issues. Even hard, scary issues such as nuclear weapons can be approached. When people are laughing, their defenses are lowered, so they can see things in fresh ways. You can watch for FREE the movie I linked here. It came out in 1966, during the height of the Cold War. It pointed out – in very funny ways – the ridiculousness of some people’s fears, and also the humanity of Russian submariners. I […]
It starts at about 3:55 and runs for nearly a minute. https://www.freegreatmovies.com/Free-Movie/Horse-Feathers/4135 (This is from the Marx Brothers’ film “Horse Feathers.”)
We keep seeing new housing developments named after the environmental reality that had been existing at that site before the housing development was built. So, for example, a forest of cedar trees is clear-cut and replaced by a housing development called “Cedar Park.” This happens a lot. So, we can use that strategy to oppose the housing development that is planned for the NW Olympia location where the Sundberg Gravel Pit, a Weyerhaeuser log yard, and a toxic waste site have existed. Let’s start now to publicly – and repeatedly – refer to the proposed housing development as “Toxic Waste […]
This article deserves being read all the way to the end: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/14/the-lunacy-is-getting-more-intense-how-birds-arent-real-took-on-the-conspiracy-theorists
This article deserves being read all the way to the end: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/14/the-lunacy-is-getting-more-intense-how-birds-arent-real-took-on-the-conspiracy-theorists
Here is a smart T-Shirt message about science:
All of our progressive movements (for peace, the environment and climate, for human rights and social justice, etc., etc., etc.) need smart ways to reach out to other people with messages that they will be able to hear and understand. Creativity, the arts, and humor can be more powerful than hard logic and facts, because they go over and around and under the barriers that prevent some people from hearing and absorbing new ideas. Here are some examples and resources: Watch this excellent 7-minute video: Why it is best to listen to political satire. Mainstream news media have legitimized […]
Government officials SAY nice things about the climate, but they keep failing to take meaningful actions to fix the climate crisis. Also, they try to avoid being held accountable for their negligence. CONSIDER THIS ANALOGY: Someone with a serious addiction to alcohol says he wants to cure his addiction. He says he will reduce his alcohol consumption 20% by the year 2035. He also refuses to be held accountable if he fails to reach that target. This is what most of the politicians in the polluting nations are doing about the climate.
Most of our anti-nuclear organizing efforts rely upon hard facts (often scary, alarming facts). But other methods (art, music, etc.) can reach people in deeper, more personal ways that hard facts can’t. We do not use humor often enough. It has great potential to cut through what is entrenched and open people up to see things in totally fresh ways. We need such freshness in order to escape the deadening oppression that the nuclear arms race has imposed upon society. Let’s consider how we might use humor to reach out to the public, the media, and politicians, and the military-industrial […]
Betty Bowers publicly stated: “Texas doesn’t have a hotline if you see a man go into a kindergarten with an AR-15, but it does have a hotline if you see a woman go into a Planned Parenthood parking lot with her car.” The Republican-dominated government of Texas does not seem to understand the irony — or appreciate women’s rights.
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