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May 19, 2013
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The Lorax Not Just For Trees, Against Plastics

By Iris Somberg | March 05, 2012 | 10:04

A  A
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“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.” But not just the trees! With the help of Universal Studios, “The Lorax” drank the left-wing kool-aid and has entered the fight against plastics, and anything artificial. To top it off, The New York Times is upset that the movie doesn’t promote environmentalism enough. Really.

In this adaptation of the classic Dr. Seuss book, the screenwriters took a story about saving trees and turned it into an animated flick promoting one of the latest lefty trends, attacking plastics. The movie villain, Mr. OHare, sells air in plastic bottles to the residents of Thneedville. (Selling bottled air has long been the left’s analogy for how silly it is to sell bottled water.)

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

The first scene of the movie shows what looks like a water cooler delivery truck dropping off bottled air to the residents of this artificial town. The deliveryman proceeds to smell the crisp money given in exchange for bottled air. In a clear mockery of bottled water, OHare is later pitched the idea of portable bottles of air. OHare declares “You gotta be kidding me! You really think people are stupid enough to buy this?”

The lefty website The Story of Stuff features a video on plastic bottles. The narrator exclaims, “Water is free! What will they sell us next, air?” Not surprisingly, the site is made possible by the Tides Foundation, which has received more than $25 million from liberal backer George Soros’s Open Society Foundations since 2000.

Long gone are the days when “The Lorax” is just about ending deforestation.  BMI recently detailed how Universal caved to pressures from a change.org petition supposedly created by children to make their advertising greener. Liberals in the media scoffed at BMI and others for pointing out the clear environmentalist propaganda in the film. Think Progress, another Soros-funded left-wing blog, criticized Lou Dobbs of Fox Business for covering the movie’s liberal indoctrination.

A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote in his review that “despite its soft environmentalist message ‘The Lorax’ is an example of what it pretends to oppose.” A film that uses plastic bottles of air to mock water bottles, features a funeral tribute for the first fallen Truffula tree, and songs about the evil of greed is, to Scott too whimsical and overly commercialized.

Scott claims the Seussian controversy is fueled by crazy right-wingers that believe it is part of a “Hollywood conspiracy to brainwash America’s children into hating capitalism and loving trees.” Take away Scott’s bitter disdain and sarcasm, and he’s spot on.

Left-wing groups are also critical of the movie for not being environmental enough. The vehemently liberal Mother Jones blog (another Soros beneficiary to the tune of $200,000) that the new version is “neglecting the environmental message” with its initial promotion and cooperation with a Mazda SUV. Apparently Universal was supposed to promote electric or hybrid cars that the average American can’t even afford instead of the one they used.

Hollywood consistently vilifies businessmen and industries, even as it puffs liberal causes and sensibilities. And woe unto those who dare point out the propaganda for what it is. As was the case with “The Muppets,” the characters actually publicly came out against Fox News and conservatives that noted the film’s stock oil industry villains.

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Comments

Typical liberal view*

Submitted by cajun2 on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 10:17am.

And never with any thought of consequences.

http://www.ranken-energy.com/Products%20from%20Petroleum.htm

If we stop making products with petroleum, we would then have to go back to wood or paper. There go the trees. Technology has not yet reached the level of creating non petroleum based materials.

Which of the products on that list above can we do without? Eyeglasses? Pacemakers? Deodorant? Can't do without deodorant, libs stink.

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I respectfully disagree, Cajun

Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:11pm.

"Technology has not yet reached the level of creating non petroleum based materials."

I respectfully disagree. Mankind, thousands of years ago, built large, freestanding, multi-story structures that still stand today, out of nothing more than some clay, some dead grass, and a bit of water: non-petroleum based materials (well, ok, grass is a precursor to petroleum, if you wish to get technical) which were mixed together, formed into rectangles and dried in the sun. We call them "bricks."

The technology does exist, it's just too labor, and time, intensive for practical use for a population that numbers in the billions.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court

Or Anwar al-Awlaki.

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Wow!

Submitted by almostacowboy on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:42pm.

I can't wait to see the new "all-brick" i-Pad 4. (eye-roll)

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~I'll tell you one thing

Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:55pm.

It'll definitely have one hell of a crime deterrent feature.

Obama's WTF 2012 campaign slogan: "A dog in every pot"
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cobra*

Submitted by cajun2 on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 2:14pm.

The link I posted shows 144 products from a list of 6000. I remember my grandfather had a pair of glasses where the frame was made of wood. Think how many of those 6k products would disappear if we had no oil. As you stated, bricks and other products used were adequate at the time but would now bring us back to the dark ages, especially in communications, pharmacuticals , and medical care.

No doubt that technology and science will one day make us independent of oil but the Volt and ethanol have shown us that we are not there yet.

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To bad

Submitted by Delsa on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 11:01am.

To bad. I was looking forward to a fun movie filled with entertainment. Sad the left seems to have this media locked up

I won't spend my money here or at Go To My PC

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i saw this over the weekend

Submitted by TruthMonger on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 11:20am.

i saw this over the weekend and i can see why libs would be disappointed. i didn't feel like it was too bad, this film did hold back a little from the usual in-your-face approach. tho it could be a deliberate approach to try and get people like me to accept the message? these people have propaganda down to a master craftsmanship...

Congratulations Jimmy Carter!

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Lorax

Submitted by oldfart on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 11:25am.

Gag

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
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Hmm

Submitted by compguytracy on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 11:45am.

Im in the computer repair biz and canned air is a big seller. I of cohrse dont feel like paying 6-7 per can so i got me am air compressor for 50 on black friday problem solved! I know thats not what they mean by bottled air

 

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?" Orwell, 1984  

Ceteris paribus

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YOU....are in the computer repair biz?

Submitted by almostacowboy on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:45pm.

May I ask to what extent? Driving them to the recycler?

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so if I understand the Progressive position,

Submitted by agingcynic on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 11:47am.

I should not be able to buy bottled water for ME but I should be FORCED to buy birth control for YOU. Sure sounds a lot like theft to me.

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Its funny how bottled water

Submitted by MrSnuggles on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 12:34pm.

Its funny how bottled water is evil, despite the fact that it is technically healthier with more vitamins and minerals than tap water (which we all know contains evils like cyanide and flouride). Yet birth control pills are a human right even though they are artificially created hormones and chemicals that have negative effects on women and are created by those damned evil pharma companies.

but it is all part of the desire to eliminate capitalism and control the population.

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Bottled water is an old concept

Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 12:42pm.

Here's what the "educated" liberals have forgotten: "Bottled" water predates human history. Those weren't bags of Chivas Regal people carried as they worked to build the ancient cities, sail across the seas, and grow crops in the fields.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court

Or Anwar al-Awlaki.

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Bottled water contains vitamins?

Submitted by almostacowboy on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:37pm.

If that was supposed to be sarcastic, my meter didn't go off, Snuggles, old boy. Aside from the genius of getting the health-conscious, jogging-crazed, and self-absorbed (read "lefties") to pay for something that comes free out of a garden hose bottled water is just.....well, water in a petroleum consuming, land filling container. And then, telling you that if you don't drink at least 4 million ounces of water a day (only a slight exaggeration to make a point) you will die???????? Ahhhh, pure EVIL GENIUS!

Lewis Black summed it up perfectly beginning at the 3:10 mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXS5GBuk-GQ
(Warning- graphic (F) language)

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No sarcasm, its why bottled

Submitted by MrSnuggles on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 2:25pm.

No sarcasm, its why bottled "spring water" tastes funny.

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"Progressive" positioning: Brownian motion in action

Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 12:59pm.

It's amazing how the "progressives" keep changing their position on things like bottled water. It's evil to buy and sell bottled water, but, man, Bush was the devil himself for not getting that "evil" bottled water to the New Orleans Superdome on time!

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court

Or Anwar al-Awlaki.

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O2 for sale

Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 12:25pm.

"You gotta be kidding me! You really think people are stupid enough to buy this?"

I don't know, what do you think?

Liberals, you really need to pick another symbol to represent foolish, unnecessary, "wasteful" products. "Bottled air" is keeping millions of people alive every singe day. I mean, really, the doctors don't hook you up to a palm tree when you're undergoing surgery. And I've yet to see someone with a respiratory ailment drag around an entire greenhouse just so they can breath.

Oh, and by the way, scuba divers don't sling a vat of algae on their backs when they're studying the "die offs" of coral reefs. Those are bottles of, you guesses it, AIR! Just like the bottles of air the firemen use while extinguishing the flames that have engulfed your house, all because you dropped your joint in the wrong place.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court

Or Anwar al-Awlaki.

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Just in case anyone is interested,

Submitted by bkeyser on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:13pm.

this is "film" composition:

Oriented polyester film with polyvinylidene chloride (PVdC) coating. May contain a co-extrusion layer. Various fillers or additives used to modify the physical appearance and / or surface properties may be present.

Base Film: Polyethylene Terephthalate  

PVdC Coating: Poly(Vinylidene Chloride / Methyl Methacrylate)

Coextrusion Layer (If Present): Isophthalate Copolymer

The following fillers and / or additives may be present: 

Barium Sulfate
Titanium Dioxide 
Poly(Ethylene / Vinyl Acetate)
Acrylic Polymer
Polypropylene 
Polyvinyl Alcohol 
Silica 
Silicone
Carbon Black (Only in Black Films)  
Aluminum  

Not exactly the kind of stuff that grows from trees. I wonder how many miles of it is used in the movie industry on a yearly basis?

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On behalf of the rest of the Engineers here at NB, BK, .....

Submitted by almostacowboy on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:40pm.

thank you, my fellow nerd. But, in the case of carbon black, shouldn't that be "only in African-American films"? ;->

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Enviro-Racist Remark!!

Submitted by BuffNBone on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:51pm.

Your use of the terms like "present", "Carbon", "Black", and "Only" in close proximity clearly suggests some kind of code language about our present President.

You may redeem yourself only if you say something like, "Of course as we all know, it is Bush's fault."

\sarc off

"Fighters are fun but bombers make policy"
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I just want to check

Submitted by LinTaylor on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:54pm.

I'm a little confused, I always assumed that the idea of selling bottled water came more out of the liberal "Give people a taste of pure Mother Earth, man" mindset than the supposed conservative mindset of "Sell anything and everything". Am I wrong? I mean, who's credited with starting the trend of bottled water, a conservative or a liberal?

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bottled water

Submitted by Schofield Kid on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 4:37pm.

The idea of selling 5 gallon bottles of water goes way, way back. You can see it in old movies going back to at least the 1940s. I'm thinking that personal water bottles probably got big in the 1980s during the whole aerobics and exercise craze, so I don't think was really liberal or conservative, just taking advantage of a big market.

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Nuts

Submitted by feisty on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 2:52pm.

I saw it with my two kids yesterday and was relatively entertained. They enjoyed it. But I had to leave and tell my kids about the exaggerations made in the movie. I told them, "Companies don't operate like that. They're not all big and mean and don't care about the Earth. The movie was doing that for the story. It was an exaggeration. It's OK to struggle in hopes that one day your dreams will be as big as a Once-Ler factory!"

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