Alan Caruba
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Alan Caruba (1937–2015) was a PR man, freelance writer, and wingnut crank. He ran the "Caruba Organization," a PR firm, and the "National Anxiety Center," a think tank, both of which were basically just himself recycling his old material.
National Anxiety Center[edit]
The National Anxiety Center's mission, in its own words:
“”The original purpose was to debunk the many claims made by environmental and consumer organizations that were engaged in deliberately false, media-driven scare campaigns. Since purposefully raising fear and anxiety over various issues is the main weapon used by various special interest groups, the Center was named for this practice and exists to refute it.[1]
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This translates to denial of just about every environmental problem of the past fifty years. DDT? We need more! Rachel Carson? An environmental Hitler. Acid rain? Doesn't exist. Hole in the ozone layer? Greenie blatherskite. Endangered species? Hey, species went extinct before humans even existed! Global warming? One of the greatest hoaxes in history! Coal? Burn more of it! Peak oil? Doomsday fear-mongering nonsense. We've got abiotic oil![note 1]
For all of the outlandish claims, Caruba didn’t even provide much original material at the National Anxiety Center. Most of the information on the site is recycled from denialist think tanks like the Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute and "journalists" like James Delingpole.
Don't be scared. Be very scared![edit]
Despite wailing about the supposed fear-mongering of the nutty greenies, Caruba himself took a black helicopters approach to just about every issue. He promoted all aspects of the global warming conspiracy theory (Climategate, of course, is the smoking gun), which in turn, is all part of a massive commie plot by the United Nations. He also believed public education is part of this vast conspiracy (although, in stopped clock mode, he did slam schools for focusing too much on rote memorization instead of comprehension). He also really hated Mexicans and Muslims. According to Caruba, we must secure the border before illegal immigration destroys the fabric of our society, Islamofascism is just around the corner, and the UN is an enabler of the Muslims' secret plots. We must also be wary of the dreadful homosexual agenda.
Other activities[edit]
Caruba was something of an acolyte of Robert W. Felix, whose books and pseudoscientific brand of catastrophism he promoted. Caruba frequently cross-posted to Felix's Ice Age Now site, which shorts out irony meters as he whines about the "alarmism" of global warming proponents while predicting an imminent and likely catastrophic ice age.[2]
He was also a semi-birther. He said he doesn't really care about the birth certificate as such but believed in the pseudolegal theory that Barack Obama is not eligible to be president because his father was not a natural-born citizen.[3]
His writings mostly appeared on fringe wingnut sites, largely Canada Free Press, though he occasionally got some play in the bigger wingnut outlets like the Moonie Times.[4]
He also ran a spoof site called The Boring Institute.
External links[edit]
- Caruba-net:
- Face the science... Face the science... International Journal of Inactivism
- "Obama's Make-believe Life", Snopes
- "Alan Caruba Bingo", Anarchy is Hyperbole
- "Caruba" category at Right Wing Watch
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ National Anxiety Center about page
- ↑ Cassandra Says It Will Get Very Cold at Warning Signs
- ↑ Things I Don't Care About, Alan Caruba
- ↑ Of Morons and Put-ons, Caruba in the Times