David Suzuki compares oil sands industry to slavery

[taxslave]

So what?


Of course, many capitalist countries had slavery. Not your arm-waving, butthurt dwama-queen "slavery," the real thing. Ownership of one human being as chattel by another.

Slave ownership was common in places and times where capitalism was never even heard of.

 

[AnnaG]

David Suzuki compares oil sands industry to slavery

Environmental activist David Suzuki is comparing Canada’s oil sands industry to slavery just as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country’s premiers discuss a national climate change plan ahead of the upcoming Paris climate conference.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said Monday, ahead of the first ministers meeting, that Canada needs to consider the economy when talking about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Whatever it is we agree to going into Paris, whatever we agree to as a country, we need to make sure we understand what impact that’s going to have on jobs. What additional impact will that have on the energy sector, which is already suffering massive layoffs in our country?” Wall said.

Suzuki dismissed Wall’s comments as the same arguments used by those who benefited from owning slaves. “It sounds very much to me like southern states argued in the 19th century, that to eliminate slavery would destroy their economy,” Suzuki said in an interview Monday on SiriusXM’s Everything is Political with Evan Solomon.

Suzuki says 19th-century slave owners prioritized the economy over the goal of ending slavery like Wall is putting the economy and jobs ahead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Who would say today that the economy should have come before slavery?” Suzuki said.

When Solomon pointed out that the oil sands industry might take offence to comparisons with those who perpetuated slavery, Suzuki didn’t back down. “It is the same thing,” Suzuki said. “They’re destroying the very atmosphere that we depend on.”

But when Solomon raised the point that people who work in the oil fields might take issue with being compared to those who worked in the slave trade, Suzuki doubled down on his position.

Suzuki said slavery and climate change are not economic issues, but moral issues. “I’m with the Pope, and as you know, I’m an atheist, but I’m willing to kiss the Pope on his feet, on his hands or anywhere else he wants me to kiss him,” Suzuki told Solomon about the Pope’s position on climate change.

Pope Francis wrote the encyclical “On Care for our Common Home” in May this year. He brought a strong message of the moral imperative to act on climate change to the White House and U.S. President Barack Obama on his recent visit there.

In an emailed statement to Everything is Political following the show, Suzuki clarified that he was not saying anyone working in fossil fuels was like someone who was a slave owner.

“All I was saying was that southern states argued that abolishing slavery would destroy their economy and that is like the fossil-fuel industry arguing against action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will destroy the economy. In other words, they are putting the economy above the matter of slavery and climate change and I think that is immoral,” Suzuki said. “People caught in working for the fossil-fuel industry will have to make a transition, they are not the target of my ire.”

Suzuki said he is supportive of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s new climate action plan.

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David Suzuki compares oil sands industry to slavery

Logical fallacy. Suzuki did NOT compare the industry to slavery. Basically he said priorities are sociopathic and I agree with him.

I think Suzuki should have stuck with biology, though.

 

[taxslave]

So the statement "capitalism is freedom" is demonstrated by reality to be false.

Sorry, I should have made the connection for you before. I know it's hard for you.

No its not. In a Capitalist society everyone has equal opportunity to become rich. What they decide to do with that opportunity is up to them. Not so in communist countries.

 

[AnnaG]

Capitalism is slavery.

Actually, no. In capitalism, people actually get recompensed relatively fairly for whatever they offer. It should be something more like governments are slave owners because their revenues are significantly larger than what governments provide.

 

[taxslave]

Capitalism is wage slavery and the population being reduced to consumer bots.


Ya we know that you freeloaders hate the thought of doing anything for yourselves. You do not have to work for wages. Start your own business.Have other s work for you. Here you are free to do that. In a communist society that would be impossible.

 

[AnnaG]

Never watched Q - thought Ghomeshi was waaay too smarmy. I loved the Nature of Things too - years ago when it was about nature not DS's rantings and ravings. I learned a lot from the program. I met David Suzuki at an airport years ago - at that time I was still an admirer of his as he'd not yet gone off the deep end. I still watch TNOT from time to time but find that Nat Geo covers many of the same subjects as do the countless documentaries carried on PBS stations.

I did not mind Q too much. I never watched it but while I drove somewhere sometimes I would have it on. The best episode I heard was Ghomeshi's interview with Leonard Cohen.
I used to like the NoT before Suzuki went off the deep end. PBS is immensely better as is NatGeo.

 

[MHz]

Capitalism is freedom. Communism is slavery. Just look at who has fences to keep their citizens in and who has fences to keep the riffraff out.

There are no riffraff in functioning communism. Politicians should make the same basic pay as a ditch digger.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Logical fallacy. Suzuki did NOT compare the industry to slavery. Basically he said priorities are sociopathic and I agree with him.

I think Suzuki should have stuck with biology, though.

I think he should have stuck with The Nature of Things.

 

[AnnaG]

I think he should have stuck with The Nature of Things.

Well, he was likely a decent biologist. I think having his show messed up his head.

 

[HarperCons]

Slave ownership was common in places and times where capitalism was never even heard of.

slavery still happens today

Actually, no. In capitalism, people actually get recompensed relatively fairly for whatever they offer. It should be something more like governments are slave owners because their revenues are significantly larger than what governments provide.

no they don't get "recompensated fairly" in capitalism. that goes against the entire nature of capitalism, which is for capitalists to create surplus value, and if your workers are actually getting paid that value they created, the capitalist can't become multimillionaires or billionaires.

No its not. In a Capitalist society everyone has equal opportunity to become rich. What they decide to do with that opportunity is up to them. Not so in communist countries.

i'm not sure how you believe something so blatantly false. like arguing with a flat earther.

Capitalism is wage slavery and the population being reduced to consumer bots.


Ya we know that you freeloaders hate the thought of doing anything for yourselves. You do not have to work for wages. Start your own business.Have other s work for you. Here you are free to do that. In a communist society that would be impossible.

freeloaders? as in, billionaires who exploit their workers and hoard their profits, while poor people on welfare contribute more to the economy than they do? ah yes.

 

[AnnaG]

no they don't get "recompensated fairly" in capitalism. that goes against the entire nature of capitalism, which is for capitalists to create surplus value, and if your workers are actually getting paid that value they created, the capitalist can't become multimillionaires or billionaires.

Wrong. People become wealthy mostly because they do not waste what they get and get their money working for them. It is called investing. That is why we have things like shares and stock markets and stuff.
Go back to school and quit sucking up the communist propaganda. Just a suggestion.

 

[HarperCons]

Wrong. People become wealthy mostly because they do not waste what they get and get their money working for them. It is called investing. That is why we have things like shares and stock markets and stuff.
Go back to school and quit sucking up the communist propaganda. Just a suggestion.

you're so incoherent, it's like you're trying hard to make a point but you don't know how to because you lack the very basic necessity to engage in an argument , knowledge on the topic you're speaking about.

you're so stubborn about being wrong though, so you'll continue to spout off nonsense.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

you're so incoherent, it's like you're trying hard to make a point but you don't know how to because you lack the very basic necessity to engage in an argument , knowledge on the topic you're speaking about.

you're so stubborn about being wrong though, so you'll continue to spout off nonsense.

LOL at you calling somebody incoherent.

 

[AnnaG]

you're so incoherent, it's like you're trying hard to make a point but you don't know how to because you lack the very basic necessity to engage in an argument , knowledge on the topic you're speaking about.

You cannot argue the point so you attempt insults (poor attempts at that). That is a logical fallacy known as "ad hominem" and it is pretty lame.
But I expected no better from you.

 

[VanIsle]

There is no bigger hypocrite than he is. He's all about fancy houses and vehicles. He is the exact opposite of what he preaches. Owns a big home in the British Properties in Vancouver. He's playing the role and laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[waldo]

There is no bigger hypocrite than he is. He's all about fancy houses and vehicles. He is the exact opposite of what he preaches. Owns a big home in the British Properties in Vancouver. He's playing the role and laughing all the way to the bank.

you can't even get the Ezrant created meme right! Try Kits... not West Van! More pointedly, the reason that Kits home has such an expensive market value is simply a reflection on Vancouver housing values..... if I recall correctly that home was bought as a 'starter home' in the 60s, bought with family support and shared by multiple families for years.

 

[pgs]

you can't even get the Ezrant created meme right! Try Kits... not West Van! More pointedly, the reason that Kits home has such an expensive market value is simply a reflection on Vancouver housing values..... if I recall correctly that home was bought as a 'starter home' in the 60s, bought with family support and shared by multiple families for years.

Actually his house was never a starter house.It's in Point Grey on the west side of Vancouver .Sure it is a house that was probably built in the early 1900's and needed renovation but hardly a starter home even in the 1960's.To renovate that house would have cost more in 1969 then it would cost to buy houses in other parts of Vancouver .

 

[AnnaG]

Actually his house was never a starter house.It's in Point Grey on the west side of Vancouver .Sure it is a house that was probably built in the early 1900's and needed renovation but hardly a starter home even in the 1960's.To renovate that house would have cost more in 1969 then it would cost to buy houses in other parts of Vancouver .

I had to look it up. Guess what I found. As of 2013 the dude owned 4 houses.

David Suzuki a man of property | Canada | News | Ottawa Sun

 

[Walter]

I had to look it up. Guess what I found. As of 2013 the dude owned 4 houses.

David Suzuki a man of property | Canada | News | Ottawa Sun

 

[waldo]

Actually his house was never a starter house.It's in Point Grey on the west side of Vancouver .Sure it is a house that was probably built in the early 1900's and needed renovation but hardly a starter home even in the 1960's.To renovate that house would have cost more in 1969 then it would cost to buy houses in other parts of Vancouver .

sure it was; I've seen vintage pictures of it from that period. He didn't have the money to buy it on his own; it was purchased through a collective family effort... and multiple families lived there for years. It's in Kitsilano, not Point Grey. The whole point of Ezrant making this charge of Suzuki, the millionaire Vancouver home-owner, was to attempt to disparage him. Apparently, right-wing zealots like Ezrant, discount home investment over decades... over 40+ years... but only for selective targeting.