Actor, former California governor and Kennedy clan outcast Arnold Schwarzenegger has a problem with “climate change.” No, it’s not the theory. He’s on board with that. It’s the wording.
Comments he made to CBS Sunday Morning back in May, which may have been overshadowed by other news, have resurfaced to make the rounds on social media, where he told reporter Tracy Smith in an interview, “As long as they keep talking about global climate change, they are not gonna go anywhere. ‘Cause no one gives a s--- about that.”
He added, “Let’s go and rephrase this and communicate differently about it and really tell people -- we’re talking about pollution. Pollution creates climate change, and pollution kills.”
What’s old is new again when it comes to messaging. The 76-year-old former bodybuilder, cigar aficionado, and the owner of a fleet of gas-guzzling, 10,000-pound Hummer SUVs, wants to go back to the terminology before “climate change,” before “global warming,” and to the 1960s-vintage “pollution,” a word that means absolutely nothing to Millennials or Gen Z.
Still, the father-in-law of actor Chris Pratt knows a thing or two about words. Who could forget when he made big news of his own for his word choice in August 2021? That was when he attacked people who opposed mask, vaccine, and other fruitless COVID mandates.
In an interview on CNN, he famously said, “There is a virus here. It kills people and the only way we prevent it is: get vaccinated, wear masks, do social distancing, washing your hands all the time, and not just to think about, ‘Well my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.’ No, screw your freedom," Schwarzenegger said.
“You have the freedom to wear no mask -- but you know something? You’re a schmuck for not wearing a mask. Because you are supposed to protect your fellow Americans around you.”
Even by then, it was widely known that none of the measures he listed prevented spread. But on one thing he was clear, your basic freedoms are revocable.
So, now, the climate activist and the son of Nazi Gustav Schwarzenegger, wants to reframe the climate debate. He wants words that scare, and he doesn’t think “climate change” is scary enough. It doesn’t evoke enough emotion to get the masses to trust governments, NGOs, and others to make decisions for them on what’s for their own good. He doesn’t believe so long as “climate change” is the brand, enough freedom-loving human beings around the world will easily surrender their basic human rights and freedoms.
As we have learned, no matter what, the solution to saving the planet has to involve some form of force where you give up certain rights and freedoms.
In Schwarzenegger’s case, the question may not be whether he is right morally, but is he technically correct?
While Schwarzenegger has embraced many identifiers in his lifetime thus far, if there is one thing where he is truly a master is branding. It’s reinvention. It’s convincing the masses to pay attention and perhaps do what he wants. He understands mass conditioning.
Consider this. While his greatest success so far has been as an actor, and The Terminator is likely the one picture he’ll best be remembered for, he delivered only 17 sentences in that movie. Millions went to see it, and it made him a bankable box-office star. Who else could pull that off?
And while it remains to be seen whether “pollution” will even be entertained by the Left as an umbrella term, even then whether it will stick, the businessman and entrepreneur, can be trusted for his instincts on what is not working. And “climate change” clearly is not working in terms of galvanizing public support for the next global effort to “screw your freedom,” as Schwarzenegger would say.
In 2022, the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University found that “global warming is the 24th most highly ranked issue registered voters” felt would be very important in the 2022 midterms. Note that the very partisan university center was still using the long-outdated term, “global warming,” in its own study. Also note that somehow the study framed the issue as 24th among “highly ranked” issues. One might presume that anything below 10th probably should not be considered “highly ranked.”
What this all means is that Schwarzenegger is probably right. “Climate change” as a term is a big nothingburger, no matter how many billions of dollars the Left throws at it through partisan “science,” public awareness campaigns, political movements, NGOs and other activist organizations, and even the full weight of the United Nations. People just don’t care.
At some point, there may indeed be some rebranding. It all depends on just how desperate the Left gets in its desire to place the world further under its tyrannical thumb. Perhaps Arnold would be glad to license some variation of “Terminator” with his fellow doomsday strategists. Because “climate change” is going nowhere.
Tim O'Brien is a veteran corporate communications consultant and crisis communicator who operates O’Brien Communications in Pittsburgh.
Image: Daniel Oberhaus
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