Nomination for nuttiest divorce from reality: the Agenda 21 Conspiracy

[piechartking]

I've been seeing this thing crop up now and again, but paid it no mind. After getting into a debate with my conservative brother-in-law where he dropped the "Open your eyes and see what's going on in the world. UN Agenda 21 is coming to get ya!" line, I thought it would be best to look into this, so as not to be ignorant of some substantive important issue. What I found literally made me burst into laughter. Sustainable development? Public transportation? Bike lanes and urban green space? Sounds goo-I mean, horrifying. Horrifying, right.

Then, today the Agenda 21 thing reared its head again, when I saw that at the Georgia (my home state) State Capitol (seriously? The Capitol?), there was a presentation on the UN's Agenda 21, a non-binding resolution that hasn't been ratified by the Senate. Basically, it means bupkis. Basically, it pushes sustainable living, conservation of resources, pretty positive and environmentally friendly stuff.

To people like those idiots at the Georgia Capitol and my brother-in-law, though, it's a conspiracy to force Americans out of rural and suburban areas, and into urban "human habitation zones". WTF???

[NC_Nurse]

1. I am particularly fond of this one. Of all the wacko conspiracy theories on the RW...

this one is just hilarious! Not only is it a completely silly premise, but the "agenda" is completely harmless - oh to encourage people to bike and live in sensible communities? uh, ok.

How is this supposed to harm the U.S.? It's happening anyway...guess they see the ranks of their rural white areas and burbs diminishing and before you know it...BAM scary brown people on bikes everywhere! AAAAAAAUUUGH!

Here in GA I guess they're just afraid they'll be forced to move to ATL. Horrors. hehe.

[piechartking]

2. I've read that they disrupt zoning board meetings, city planning town halls and stuff

Start handing out their looney powerpoints and accusing these poor low-level government officials (zoning board members and what not) of being part of some international UN conspiracy to force us all into the cities...and these people are talking about do we zone Industrial - 3, or 2? Maybe widen a sidewalk? I mean, I start giggling even while I'm typing this stuff...

[NC_Nurse]

3. Amazing. Who comes up with this shit? They don't LOOK like stoners...

[mzteaze]

11. Makes You Wonder

[pnwest]

4. this was the same meeting where they talked about

the presidents "Delphi" mind vontyol, too, right? And were utterly serious...

[piechartking]

5. Yes the same one. The article I saw was on Mother Jones

and they had video, and some hand-out where they were comparing this to Stalin's collectivization efforts and Mao's Great Leap Forward. Incidentally, my wife and I recently watched a documentary about Mao and it featured a huge segment devoted to the Great Leap Forward, and I've read extensively on this time period where China essentially lost an entire generation with Mao's crazy bullshit, and to compare Agenda 21 to either of those is the height of hilarity.

I've downloaded the whole thing though (all 300+ pages) and will dutifully read through it (I'm an attorney, so it won't be so bad, don't feel sorry for me), just in case there's a section tucked away somewhere that reads something like: "The United Nations shall have absolute authority and discretion to commandeer and exercise control over the Treaty Nation's military forces, where the United Nations is of the opinion that such control is necessary and appropriate to implement any section of this Treaty." I'll cross my fingers...

[UCmeNdc]

6. See the GOP is using the name against the program "Agenda 21" sounds ominous

Propaganda at its best. Agenda 21 sounds bad so the program must be bad.

[union_maid]

7. They really should get serious

and start worrying about the FEMA re-education camps. We've had four years to get those ready.

[piechartking]

8. FEMA re-education camps? Is that a part of this thing too? n/t

[NewJeffCT]

12. not to mention, all the stimulus money

that went to making special hybrid vans that they'll use to go around & collect everybody's guns, and then they'll still have enough gas afterwards to bring everybody to the re-education camps

[sammytko]

9. The part I've had thrown at me was the immunization shot that will render populations sterile!

There are videos on YouTube with bill gates talking about this and it's totally taken out of context.

Some whacko was pushing this on a nice friendly forum I frequent.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. It's not just Georgia state pols; it was in the 2012 Republican platform

So what do these historically-challenged and completely inaccurate claims have to do with the Republican party? The Republican National Committee has officially adopted these conspiracy theories as its national platform. In January, the RNC adopted a resolution calling Agenda 21 “insidious” and “covert.”

The United Nations Agenda 21 is being covertly pushed into local communities throughout the United States of America through the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) through local “sustainable development” policies such as Smart Growth, Wildlands Project, Resilient Cities, Regional Visioning Projects, and other “Green” or “Alternative” projects

The Republican National Committee recognizes the destructive and insidious nature of United Nations Agenda 21 and hereby exposes to the public and public policy makers the dangerous intent of the plan.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/15/523931/republican-party-officially-embraces-garbage-agenda-21-conspiracy-theories-as-its-national-platform/

And newly elected US Senator Ted Cruz from Texas (often put forward as 'the future of the party', on account of being Hispanic):

Under the guise of world sustainability the plan establishes a regime of rules that attempt to bypass Congress and the American people, handing over power over vast areas of the US economy to unelected UN bureaucrats.

Agenda 21 is wrong, and it must be stopped.
...
The originator of this grand scheme is George Soros, who candidly supports socialism and believes that global development must progress through eliminating national sovereignty and private property. He has given millions to this project. But he is not the only one promoting this plan; in fact, the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) now consists of over 600 cities in the United States.

Agenda 21 attempts to abolish “unsustainable” environments, including golf courses, grazing pastures, and paved roads. It hopes to leave mother earth’s surface unscratched by mankind. Everyone wants clean water and clean air, but Agenda 21 dehumanizes individuals by removing the very thing that has defined Americans since the beginning—our freedom.

Agenda 21 subverts liberty, our property rights, and our sovereignty. There is no doubt that the vast majority of Americans would reject this naked power grab by unelected bureaucrats. The real question is will we have Senators in Washington who will take the steps to stop this nonsense before it can do real damage to the American economy.
...
In the U.S. Senate, I intend to continue leading the fight, to stop Agenda 21 and any other globalist plan that tries to subvert the U.S. Constitution and the liberties we all cherish as Americans. We need fighters in the Senate, who will stand and defend We the People.

http://www.tedcruz.org/blog/2012/01/20/stop-agenda-21-the-constitution-should-be-our-only-%E2%80%9Cagenda-%E2%80%9D/

The up-and-coming Republican senator is an unhinged conspiracy theorist.

[Quantess]

13. WTF?

Are people really that stupid / crazy?

[cowgirlup]

14. sounds good