General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested... (on being Green) [View all]athena
(4,187 posts)Imagine I make up a story about a conversation you had in which you were obnoxious, arrogant, and clueless. When you object that the conversation never took place, I claim it doesn't matter that it never took place and that I was simply trying to illustrate a point. Would you be happy with that?
The problem with this story is that it paints environmentalists as obnoxious, arrogant, and clueless, when, in reality, true environmentalists are none of those things.
The other problem, which is worse, is that the elderly woman in the story is justifying her refusal to do a small thing to help the environment. The whole anecdote is designed to make people feel better about not reusing things. People will read this and feel good about using plastic bags, but that does not do anything to reduce the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.