What the F**k?!

Maybe I am taking the easy road for this blog assignment by selecting something that is so crazy and so far to the Right that only a few people would actually believe it. Or maybe I am hoping only a few people believe it, maybe I am terrified of the possibility that it is a somewhat-commonly held belief. What I am afraid of is the back-outside cover of the Minnesota Republic magazine. For those of you who do not know, the Minnesota Republic is an ultra-conservative magazine published a few times a year here on campus. Some of their wonderful and cutting-edge editorial content includes stories such as: The Intolerant Left, Being Gay and Right, the U of M Gun Policy - Disarming Victims Daily, and more. However, in their most recent publication their back page cover insisted readers to NOT recycle the current magazine for economic reasons. (Point of note: I am not a huge environmentalist and I don't properly recycle all of the time, but nature is important to me and protecting our environment is, as well.) (Second side note: this also stood out to me because I am an economist). They magazine provided "evidence" as to why the reader should not recycle it, including gems such as:

• There is no need to recycle because trees planted and harvested meet at an equilibrium and therefore the market is telling consumers that enough paper exists and no need to recycle any.
• Recycle has a marginal/ negligible affect on landfills
• the Government promotes their liberal agenda through recycling programs
• and more!

These are incredibly silly, preposterous, bullshit, and dumb. There are a lot of reasons why none of this makes sense, including the economics behind natural resource management (which does not follow simple supply and demand curves), to their use of data and evidence regarding landfills, and of course the liberal agenda.

However, their audience and their back page ads WORKS! It fits their readers perfectly and if they didn't believe it before, I am sure they do now! This piece works because it is simple. The popular three arrow triangle used as the recycling symbol is covered by a big red circle with a line through it. Following they simply list the reasons why not to recycle. The evidence, the image, the idea is so simple the readers must be thinking "why didn't I think of this before?!". All of those cute posters in the classroom with Goldy on them asking everyone to recycle is all apart of the liberal machine to control our minds and our dollar. These people are geniuses. Well...maybe not. This piece is similar to the reference Robin makes in his article regarding the environment and those groups like the John Birch Society and the article entitled the Resilient Earth. This piece of rhetoric works because it focuses on the reader's identity and their worldview.

The readers of the Minnesota Republic are ultra-conservative who have over the years (probably with help from their parents and local community) find themselves developing the identity and understanding of the way the world is. They subscribe to certain schools of thought based on WHO is saying it and little to do with what is being said. They adapt their identity to match those who they admire. Their sense of identity like those of the Tea Party/ Tea Baggers is so consumed with Sarah Palin and Co. that they fail to fully understand issues as a whole. This, in turn, shapes their worldview. A button I saw that helps this is "It isn't liberal and conservative, it's only Liberal and American." AKA, if you are a liberal you are not an American. This growing worldview of being Right and right means that left is Wrong, or even center is wrong. Their worldview has also been to distrust whatever the current media, government, etc is telling you. Because, according to them, they are all liars. Thus the back page cover of the Minnesota Republic is a microcosm of their worldviews and identity. They attach themselves to poor science, poor economic thought, and just poor common sense. However, because all of the science, economics, and common sense must be liberal. So for them, this ad works and works well, even if the only goal is to piss off the liberals.