I love that Al Gore is making the big money. $100 million. And all that money, despite purity troll hostility towards making it, helps fuel his activism. Here's hoping he makes $100 million more!
Fuel his activism? I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you only meant the $100m gives him the means to do more and travel more and fund more activism but the first time I read that it sounded like you were implying that the money was the reward for his activism like it was a good little attaboy for doing good. And therein lies the crux of the matter for "purity trolls" like me who might deem that much money in the hands of one person excessive.
Becoming independently wealthy off one's activism negates the honor of the activism. It is my belief that one should not even attempt to get rich off one's activism because it betrays those who joined in the activism because they were inspired.
I've sort of drifted out of in-depth DailyKos participation because it seems to be infected with some of the very element that I was under the impression that certain more equal than other voices had declared were either the problem or addicted to one of the major problems meaning consultants.
In short, it had become for a short time, the playground of elected officials out to curry cred with those crazy but influential bloggers and that is the sort of element that makes me want to take a bath when I simply see them on the news. They are those vacant-eyed smilers who slap you on the back like their your oldest family friend who just saw you last week at the Uncle Doc's fish fry then ask you to write them a check so they can get re-elected to "fight the good fight".
When John Kerry is "posting a diary" here, then there is an infection. Apologies to all the yellow dogs or blue dogs or whatever hipster term is being thrown around these days for people who are addicted to that D behind candidates' names and with touch that box no matter what the name is or the positions held by that name's owner.
Money in politics is immoral. A dollar to a candidate is not free speech. Money in politics reduces the decisions made by government to nothing more than a product.
The rights of two men who have a loving and committed relationship to marry one another is nothing equivalent to buying a car. Those rights should be inherent and not subject to who raised the most money but to who framed the discussion most logically and understandably for ALL Americans to understand. Marketing shouldn't enter into it.
Health care shouldn't be for only those who can afford it like boats or summer homes. It should be considered a birthright by every American citizen and anyone who thinks differently should be considered something akin to a cold-blooded murderer. This is a debate that should be conducted by sound individuals in an open forum to any who would attend. It should not be conducted in 30 second spots by hipster marketers with sound bites, whip pans and Top 40 hits.
Clearly, Al Gore is not a candidate for the presidential nomination at this time. His activism work is certainly worthy praise and heartfelt appreciation; however, his making $100 millon dollars on other ventures like Google and Apple or whatever are not at issue.
Were he making $100 million off his activism, you would indeed see this money-hating purity troll banging out a diary for, you see, it would then be my opinion that his activism would not be true activism but simply a schtick, a product he was hawking.
I have no idea what kind of money he's making off An Inconvenient Truth. To be honest, I'd rather not know unless he's donating it all to some charity or research and development program.
Therein is the crux of the money-hating discussion for me. It is apparent to me that some here want to be the new consultants in DC because they feel they could advise better than those who currently rule there and those here feel they would do it for the right reasons and make a decent living at the same time.
I'm sure the whores who work in DC now once held these same pure notions.
Anyone who is honest with themselves must admit that till profit is taken out of the equation in certain aspects of American politics, we must admit that we don't live in a democracy but in an oligarchy full of men and women who will play any part, quote any line to ensure that they are stars for the next four years of after parties.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to provide for your family. This money-hating purity troll works hard to provide for his and I've never once declined a raise in pay or benefits though I look forward to the day that I CAN afford that privilege.