Wheat and Chaff

Today, my cousin Susanna told me she had described Ted Turner as a communist to a cow orker. There was some skepticism to this claim, and so I have done a little research to support Susanna's assertion.

Here's what I came up with:

Here's his bio, from ABC News.

“His promised gift of $1 billion to a new foundation to support the United Nations, announced in September, 1997, may be the largest single donation by a private individual in history. (In comparison, all charitable giving by Americans in 1996 was approximately $120 billion.)”

The UN is the single biggest supporter of statist solutions to all problems, other than actual governments, and certainly agrees with Turner’s evaluations of the problems the world faces.

Then there's the Ten Voluntary Initiatives, proposed as an alternative to the Ten Commandments. Doesn't that just warm your heart? Here's some info on their origin.

Here's the original version from 1992.

Ted supports statist solutions to most problems. He assumes that the world is overpopulated, that resources are in jeopardy, that the environment is badly degraded. All of these are myths used to justify the need for government control over most or all aspects of life. Statist solutions are proposed in addition to voluntary reduction of resources. No free market solutions are proposed for any problem.

And here's a modified version in 2003:
The Ten Voluntary initiatives from 2003

Note the compromised language on WMD. Could this be that point 9 could have been seen to support Bush’s war on Iraq? Check out the language on family size- same as from the 1992 list, except that they removed the language implying a little bit of support for national sovereignty.

Here’s Ted and his son Beau on reintroducing wolves in the west.

Here’s more about Ted’s billion-dollar gift to the UN.

Look at this from Ted’s site about his philanthropic activity through the Turner Foundation:

"Since 1991, the Turner Foundation has given more than $152 million to hundreds of organizations, including Advocates for Youth, American Bird Conservancy, Global Green USA, Montana Land Reliance, National Audubon Society, National Public Radio, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Sierra Club Foundation, and the World Watch Institute."

Check out those organizations- every one of them actively promotes collectivist government solutions to whatever problem they are addressing.

The Trust for Public Land
A non-profit organization dedicated to setting land aside from private use for environmental reasons. Has partnerships with the Sierra Club, among others. Says it is for “Conserving Land for People”, but typically that means “All the people except the ones who actually own the land”. Listed on Ted Turner’s site as a recipient of funds.

Here’s an op-ed written by Ted about the new FCC rules changes that are coming. He’s disguising his statist approach by claiming these rules will be bad for small businesses. But note- only through government regulations will these businesses be able to exist, according to Ted. Another statist solution to the failure of the free market.

I especially like the line in there about how media monopoly could encourage the big corporations to slant news coverage to fit their biases- this from the owner of CNN.

I could go on for quite a while. But this should give a good starting place. All of the info has been taken from Ted's own words, or articles promoted by Turner's own web sites. Surf through those web sites for tons more info. What it comes down to is this- Ted’s not an actual Communist, probably, in the technical sense of subscribing to Karl Marx’s political philosophy. But he is a communist, in the more popular use of the term to mean a socialist, one who advocates state solutions to most problems.

Actually, he’s probably more like a fascist, one who, while not advocating direct state ownership of all industry, does believe that the state should direct the activity of industry and private individuals through regulation and education. Hitler once said, to paraphrase, “Why should we socialize the factories? We are socializing people.” Here’s a great example of Ted trying to do just that.

Now of course, the need to socialize people to believe the right thing doesn't apply to the elites like Ted- they already know the right thing. But the rest of us need it. It's wise for an enlightened man such as Ted to use his own money to support causes he agrees with, but the rest of us benighted buggers need to be directed to use our time and resources properly, for approved causes. Read those Ten "Initiatives" if you've forgotten what those causes are.