There are a lot of people angry at BP for causing huge damage to the Gulf of Mexico. As a way to vent some of this emotion, some are volunteering their help to clean up where the oil has washed ashore. Others are petitioning lawmakers to clamp down on oil companies to ensure this doesn't happen again. However, there's one option that has proved to be pointless according to Penn Jillette, half of the famed Vegas duo Penn & Teller.
On the June 8 broadcast of the Fox Business Network's "Imus in the Morning," Jillette said the first thing that amazed him about the entire oil spill catastrophe was the notion of a Facebook group geared toward boycotting BP.
"Well, you know, I don't know there's many different takes to take on it," Jillette said. "I mean, it's just a horrible disaster and a catastrophe. What amazes me about it is on Facebook, they just, they put this thing up, you know, ‘Boycott BP.'"
Aside from hurting only local station owners, as Jonathan Berr pointed out for AOL's Daily Finance on June 2, Jillette explained this would likely be the least of BP's worries considering the current circumstances.
"A Facebook thing to boycott BP?" Jillette said. "And all I could think is, you know, 11 people dead, a corporation being destroyed, the biggest natural ecological disaster in American history and I picture these people on Facebook going, ‘But, this will get ‘em.' And BP will be going ‘Oh no, now they're boycotting us on Facebook.'"
Jillette suggested these people take a step back and realize how their anger could not remotely come close to the emotions of people suffering from effects of the spill.
"I mean, the idea that whatever punishment or anger people could have towards BP could come anywhere near the horror and misery of being part of that is just amazing to me," Jillette said. "It's amazing to me that people think that attacking a corporation is the way to get out of this. No one knows more about stopping this than they do and unfortunately, it's not enough."
