(Heartland Inst.) Group pulls plug on billboard linking global warming believers to terrorists

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

A stark mug shot of domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski briefly took center stage in the increasingly ugly debate over climate change Friday as the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank funded by major corporations, launched a billboard campaign equating people convinced that global warming is real to the convicted killer.

“I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?” read big orange letters next to the Unabomber’s infamously grizzled face on an electronic billboard along the Eisenhower Expressway outside Chicago, the Heartland Institute’s home.

The billboard went live Thursday afternoon. But by 4 p.m. Eastern time, an outcry from allies and opponents alike led the Heartland Institute’s president, Joe Bast, to say he would switch off the sign within the hour.

“The Heartland Institute knew this was a risk when deciding to test it, but decided it was a necessary price to make an emotional appeal to people who otherwise aren’t following the climate change debate,” Bast wrote in an e-mail to some of the institute’s supporters, explaining his decision to end the campaign.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/group-pulls-plug-on-billboard-linking-global-warming-believers-to-terrorists/2012/05/04/gIQAU2q51T_story.html

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Uhh, is the Post clueless about science? Never ever label "believers" next to a scientifically accepted concept. This is just as absurd as "evolution believer" or "gravity believer".

[frogmarch]

1. They just keep on

throwing crap at the wall to see what'll stick.

[gratuitous]

2. An emotional appeal in what is supposed to be a scientific debate?

Uhhhhhh. Okay. You know who else used emotional appeals when reason clearly failed? Yep. Nazis. Just like the Heartland Institute.

[Grassy Knoll]

3. “The Heartland Institute knew this was a risk when deciding to test it"

Why didn't they test a Yee Haw cowboy gun next to their temple to see if it's real ?
Fucking idiot flat earth believers.

[xfundy]

4. Just posted my response to Heartless "Institute"

Please spread it far and wide.

[SunSeeker]

6. Brilliant! Thanks! nt

[SunSeeker]

5. Oh, so it was like a four-year-old testing boundaries. Right. nt

[saras]

7. it might even backfire if people ended up reading Kaczynski's writing - it makes more sense than him

And no, the Post isn't clueless, that "believers" is purely intentional. It's there for the same reason that people who should know better use the term Darwinism. Seriously, have you ever heard of anyone, ever, anywhere, insisting on the unitary nature of Darwin's thought, and the danger of contaminating his insights with those of his inferior followers? Where are these "Darwinists"? What do they think or believe?

[Festivito]

8. Interesting that both sides found it over the top and organized to kill it. /nt

[Kolesar]

9. Anticipating anonymous packages in the mail

"While we are on the subject..."

[Festivito]

10. Ted's in jail... You?

[Kurska]

11. Hitler breathed air, why do you? Are you a hitler?

Logical fallacies are awesome.

[Posteritatis]

12. All those vowels in your post. You know what else has vowels? COMMUNISM. (nt)