On his PBS program, Bill Moyers voiced some cautious approval for the idea of arresting people who disagree with him about climate change. The only problem, he argued, is that we'd have to arrest so many people that the prison-industrial complex wouldn't be able to keep up. Here's Newsbusters:
The problem is, if that should happen, if politicians were to be convicted of willful blindness to the fate of the Earth and future generations, there would have to be mass arrests and lots more funding for new prisons. We're not talking about a mere handful of culprits. It's hard even to know where to start.
Moyers then "joked" that maybe we should start by imprisoning U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who had the temerity to disagree with Bill Moyers about what should be done about climate change. At least, I assume Moyers and his lackeys will say that the wizened PBS commentator with a history of spouting inane claptrap was just "joking." Because nothing screams "comedy" like "radically abridging the First Amendment for people you disagree with," amirite?
Of course, it shouldn't be that surprising that Moyers has decided we're better off simply jailing those with whom he disagrees. His commitment to dialogue has been on the wane for literally decades now:
Moyers hardly qualifies as politically nonaligned, a neutral moderator respectful of all sides. In recent years, this veteran of the Great Society—he began his public life as an aide to President Lyndon Johnson—has drifted further to the left, his arguments increasingly strident. By 1991, he was telling interviewer Eric Alterman, "I find it very hard to have intelligent conversations with people on the right wing because they want to hit first and ask questions later."
That was Stephen F. Hayes, writing in the Weekly Standard in 2002. It seems Moyers has grown even more radical in his twilight years. It will really be a shame when we lose his voice for good, you know? The world needs more enlightened individuals such as he on our public airwaves. Too few American commentators have the gumption needed to call for the imprisonment of the opposition.