<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" The next time your drunk, wingnut uncle starts telling you about how it&amp;#039;s no big deal that we have an entire television news network, and a couple of bajillion radio stations, all spewing out the indigestible fried goobers that pass for mass conservative political ideas these days, tell him to make a call down to Virginia&amp;#039;s Middle Peninsula (Note to my Virginian friends: Is that where the Hobbits live?) and see how ordinary local government has been affected by our half-insane national political dialogue.... A well-organized and vocal group of residents has taken a keen interest in municipal preparations for sea-level rise caused by climate change, often shouting their opposition, sometimes while planners and politicians are talking. The residents&amp;#039; opposition has focused on a central point: They don&amp;#039;t think climate change is accelerated by human activity, as most climate scientists conclude. When planners proposed to rezone land for use as a dike against rising water, these residents, or &amp;quot;new activists,&amp;quot; as Lawrence calls them, saw a trick to take their property. When planners proposed to rezone land for use as a dike against rising water, these residents, or &amp;quot;new activists,&amp;quot; as Lawrence calls them, saw a trick to take their property. &amp;quot;Environmentalists have always had an agenda to put nature above man,&amp;quot; said Donna Holt, leader of the Virginia Campaign for Liberty, a tea party affiliate with 7,000 members. (Really, Donna? &amp;quot;Always&amp;quot;? Teddy Roosevelt &amp;quot;had an agenda to put nature above man&amp;quot;? That pagan bastard! I&amp;#039;m glad I never saw him in a loincloth.) (Wait a minute. I thought the Tea Party was just a bunch of citizens concerned about The Deficit. I was told by smart people that it was a spontaneous act of political involvement, and not just the latest gestation of standard Bircher idiocy. I&amp;#039;ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amuck...) When planners redesignated property as a future flood zone, activists said officials were acting on a hoax. They argued in meetings and on Web sites that local planners are unwitting agents of Agenda 21, a United Nations environmental action plan adopted in 1992 that the activists see as a shadowy global conspiracy to grab land and redistribute wealth in the United States. Oh, god, not this again. Agenda 21 is an article of faith among the increasingly indistinguishable fringe of conservative thought. It was all over that Florida GOP get-together a few months back. I like that last part, especially. &amp;quot;That the activists see as...&amp;quot; Show these people a tackhammer and they&amp;#039;ll blame Agenda 21. How do you suppose they &amp;quot;see it that way&amp;quot;? Is it because they were all watching to see what the UN was up to back in 1992? Not bloody likely. They were too busy counting up how many murders the Clintons had arranged in Arkansas. They see it that way because they turn on their radios and hear this nonsense for 18-20 hours a day. They see it that way because there is an entire TV news operation dedicated to feeding their fact-free paranoid fantasies. And the whole mess started because they wanted to help the oyster farmers, and &amp;quot;some activists&amp;quot; screamed about The Deficit and down went the oyster farmers. (Dear Oyster Farmers: Please feel free to use, without cost, and in any format you deem appropriate, the blog&amp;#039;s basic philosophy regarding the national economy: Fk the Deficit. People Got No Jobs. People Got No Money.) There is a dangerous viral lunacy afflicting our politics even at the most basic level, and a lot of somebodies are making a lot of dough in the business of making people angry and stupid. These are our airwaves, dammit. They also belong to the oyster farmer, who I imagine could use a break right now. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a12050/environmental-activists-6619098/>