Last week, I wrote about how the oil industry and its political lap dogs have conditioned us to use the acronym ANWR to describe a refuge. I say we fight back with our own vernacular.

    We need to begin a new lexicon to combat the toxic-yellow foam of vitriol drooling from reactionary orators like Rush Limbaugh. Al Franken calls Limbaugh a “Big Fat Liar” in his book of the same title. C’mon, Al, let’s get serious.

     This asshole is doing some serious damage. I talked to my father-in-law last night and he told me global warming is a liberal conspiracy. I replied that people said the same of Copernicus’ theory that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe in the 16^th Century. He said I should watch Rush Limbaugh. Watch? Is that asshole on TV now?

     We need to create descriptions that are more accurate, but also give the impression that, like the jargon of the fascists, they are propagandistic. Those who promote development at all costs—the Ralph Seekins’ of the world—are, for example, “development fanatics.” Having exploited nearly all of the continental landmass on the planet, further degradation, at this point, is fanaticism.

     The neo-conservative fascists have gotten considerable mileage from name-calling. In Alaska they have successfully branded anyone who challenges the cancerous growth of roads, parking lots, industrial mining, clear-cut logging, oil networks, tourism and the like as “environmentalists” (a bad thing). People who just don’t want Alaska to look like Illinois are “tree huggers.”

     Those of us who relish the sight of a grizzly and are concerned about the sharply rising number of hunters and political pressure to expand the kill are “bunny huggers.” This labeling worked for the Murkowski campaign. Make environmentalism something bad, and then tie your political opponent to environmentalism. Kill two greenies with one label. And these fascists know what progressives refuse to accept:  the average American has a sub-eighth-grade reading level.

     Promoting this rhetorical warfare are such “credible” institutions as chambers of commerce, the Alaska legislature, and the Anchorage Daily News, with its politically-biased, charged headlines featuring neo-fascist terms like, “Shock and Awe,” “Climate Change,” and “Predator Control.” The Christian church has relabeled “creationism” with the more benign and contemporary moniker “intelligent design.”

     The end result of this type of fascist propaganda is such worrisome problems as, literally global fire. Human growth and progress, carried on the vehicle of a sales pitch, have led to global melting (Southcentral Alaska just had the hottest week on record).

     So, as my friend Herman— who just got his firefighter’s “red card”—says, “we have to fuckin’ fight fire with fuckin’ fire.” Take Herman at his word: give Big Oil the Finger.