137th Gebirg said:
The problem is, Al Gore has made himself a part of the message for political gains, and it wouldn't be his first time.
I cannot take anyone seriously who has time and again claimed to be the inventor of the internet and is not named Larry Roberts.
Whatever Al Gore says must be a lie, and so therefore we are not being told the truth about global warming. Q.E.D.
Pretty simple.
Once upon a time (30 November 1999, specifically), Al Gore spoke to the students of Concord High School in New Hampshire. After a student asked a question about how a high schooler could become more involved with politics, Gore ruminated on the subject and the individual's ability to make a difference, eventually telling a story about how, when he was in the senate, he received a letter from a constituent saying that the water from her family's well tasted odd, that her father and grandfather had become ill, and that she though there was a connection to the water. So Gore had the area investigated, and found chemical waste was being dumped about a mile away from her home. He called for a congressional investigation and hearing, which eventually led to national attention being focused on Love Canal. As Gore said, one letter from a High School student in "Toone, Tennessee— that was the one you didn't hear of. But that was the one that started it all."
The next day, both a New York Times article by Katherine Seelye and another article in The Washington Post by Ceci Connoly misquoted Gore on the subject of Love Canal, substituting the word "I" for "that" and neglected to mention that the comment was delivered in the context of a story about an individual's ability to make a difference in the larger world. Of course, the fact that that was totally inaccurate didn't stop it from snowballing in the weeks and months afterward as another example of Glory-hogging Gore and the fact that there isn't an accomplishment in human civilization he won't take full credit for. To put a finer point on it, those first two journalists already had the story in their head, and they heard what they wanted to hear when they covered that visit to Concorde High School, and everyone else was suckered by it for the exact same reason. And now, you're doing the exact same thing. You
want Gore to be a scheming, lying son-of-a-bitch, so you're ragging on him based on something you can't have
not heard was bullshit in the last six years.
I don't have the energy to go into the Internet thing, as well. Suffice it to say, he never said the word "invented," and that some people
who actually did work on creating the internet credit Gore's support for their projects as an immense help. So, he didn't lie. I don't expect a retraction from you, but even if no one listens, I still think
someone needs to set the record straight.
I really didn't want to derail the thread, but I think it's important that we actually debate issues and credentials based on facts, and not just fall back on slanderous caricatures based on misinterpretations and outright lies. You're free to believe whatever you want about Al Gore's personality or his trustworthiness, but don't impinge them by repeating discredited tripe. And if you can't justify you opinions with events that actually happened, perhaps you need to reconsider them. Honestly, seeing that sort of thing still going around even after all these years makes me sick, and I pray to God no one ever makes up some false libel against me that has that kind of endurance.
