No, I'm not Jewish, but I think that the expression is apt.
Today in French I had the displeasure of learning about environmentalism. Now, while many would call me a 'hippie treehugger,' I know that not every method of 'going green' is helpful in preserving our planet's precious resources and the climate that lets us grow food. So, here are a few sample questions. The answers were either 'Good for the environment' or 'Bad for the environment' with nothing in between.
1.) Driving hybrid vehicles
2.) Cutting down more trees
3.) Hunting animals for fur
4.) Using aerosols
I just can't believe how poorly worded these questions are. They make no mention of how much CO2 is created in building, say, a Prius and where the electricity comes from, or that hunting can be conducted responsibly, or that using aerosols does not necessitate the use of greenhouse gas or CFC propellants, or that trees can be replanted after careful harvesting. When I asked my friends about it (and we are in the Honors class, so it's not like I'm hanging around with tweedle dee and tweedle dum) they said 'Don't think about it, just answer it'. Their views on hunting were so extreme that it was unbearable: Hunting animals is bad, period. Many species, such as deer, have exploding populations due to the extinction of natural predators, so hunting is a good way to control pests.
When I asked the teacher, it was even worse. She said "9/10 of us say that it's green, so it's green. Just go with the majority opinion." For all the talk about 'The good old days' of education, those days had certainly not taught her that a show of hands doth not a true statement make. While I agree that we must be good stewards of the planet, getting sucked in by commercial hype and acting like sheep isn't the way to do it. It's the little stuff like shutting the lights off or turning down the heat or A/C that really make the difference. Idiots.
-Penguin
