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Green hubris: ARD German public television commentary labels its audience “consumption addicts” – mentally ill – and pleads they be punished with “so damn expensive” prices.

Germany’s equivalent of the BBC, publicly (forced) funded ARD Broadcasting aired a commentary on Monday evening by journalist Lorenz Beckhardt. The commentary was to respond to the latest Earth Overshoot Day report. Eckhardt’s angry commentary was a scathing tirade against western society’s “addiction to consumerism” and an unveiled call for a collective punishment so harsh so as to lead to submission.

According to international sustainability organization Global Footprint Network, humanity has already used up nature’s resource budget for the entire year. According to the organization, this means that humanity needs almost 2 earths to satiate the human demand for her resources.

Over the years, Germany’s massive ARD public broadcasting network has increasingly moved to the left, and has since embraced extreme environmentalism and climate protection. And if anyone had any doubts about this, Beckhardt’s anti-free market tirade last Monday night puts these doubts to rest.

"Macht Fleisch, Auto fahren und fliegen so verdammt teuer, dass wir davon runter kommen. Bitte! Schnell! Dann wählen wir auch Euch alle!" – Den Umgang des Menschen mit unseren Ressourcen kommentiert @LorenzBeckhardt. (red) pic.twitter.com/Qne7U2E7UL — tagesthemen (@tagesthemen) July 29, 2019

In his angry 1-min 41 sec. tirade, Beckhardt tells the audience how he’s fed up with hearing year after year how western societies are consuming way beyond the limits and that nothing is being done about it. He demands that policymakers take action to punish the ARD audience.

Consumption junkie

To drive home his point, Beckhardt admits how earlier in the evening he too had “a nice piece of meat on the grill” and that this is something he has “often”. He also tells the audience he often uses his car and flies all over the world because he loves coral reefs. He admits: “I’m a consumption junkie” and that he cannot help it.

He says he does it because “it’s fun, rewarding, enjoyment, lust and everyone else does it.” Next he indirectly calls the entire audience mentally ill, addicts who are in need of extremely harsh medicine.

Beckhardt’s “so damn expensive” medicine

Beckhardt then characterizes western consumption as a disease, telling the nationwide audience:

Everybody knows addicts need help. The problem is that no doctor is able to cure environment-damaging consumption addiction. This can only be done by courageous policymakers. That’s why the request: make meat consumption, car driving and flying so damn expensive that we get ourselves off it. Please! Quickly! Then we’ll vote for all of you!”

What’s astonishing is that the ARD is perfectly comfortable with airing such deranged commentaries that call for the draconian blanket punishment of its audience while harboring the delusion that we all want this punishment and that we would all vote for it.

Here’s what the ARD and the Greens really want to say: “Make meat, car driving and flying so damn expensive that you all get yourselves off it. Please! Quickly! Then only the very rich, the elite and me – the ARD journalist – will afford it. The rest of you will live as peasants in serfdom.”

And if that doesn’t take the cake:

The ARD has a budget of €6.9 billion and 22,612 employees. The budget comes primarily from a licence fee which every household, company and public institution are required by law to pay. For an ordinary household the fee is currently €17.50 per month.” – Wikipedia.