A Private/Public Memo to the Enviro-blogging community:

Do I really think that Paul Watson was shot?

Off the Record...probably not. [Note to Self: How ridiculous is it for me to post something and then claim that it is off the record?] But, did it draw attention to the "scientific" Japanese Whaling program? Undoubtedly. Sea Shepherd is engaged in a propaganda war more than anything else. Will their television circus hurt or help the enviro-movement? Both. But I am guessing that Watson and co. are operating on a strategic level more than a scientific level. People like you [and you know who you are] and me don't need Sea Shepherd to showcase certain environmental issues like whaling, seal hunting, or shark finning...but there are a lot of people that do. There are a lot of people that really need stage-craft and slight of hand to alert them to certain issues. Animal Planet viewers just may be that kind of audience. The trick is in the balancing act. Can they win over enough people to justify alienating others? It is an extremely complicated issue. Keep in mind I am in no way disagreeing with legitimately concerned Sea Shepherd detractors and and their very legitimate concerns.

Is Paul Watson an asshole? UNDOUBTEDLY. But is he our asshole? That is the question.

I myself am an asshole. When I slander fishermen and photoshop obscenities on them I am guaranteeing alienating a certain audience...but then again, I never had much hope for that audience anyway.

I am trying to reach the internet tough guys, the porn addicts, lolcat freaks, anonymous chantards, meme forwarders, video gamers, 40-year-old virgins, pot heads, freelancers, comic book guys, furries, larpers. If I can alert them to an environmental issue or two with poopy pants humor and dick jokes, fine. Die hard Republicans, neo-cons, debutantes, Mormons, the humorless, Sarah Palin, trophy hunters...I don't have a chance with those people.

I can't speak for Paul Watson or Sea Shepherd and their exact demographic targeting scheme and agitprop strategy, but for everyone they turn off with some wonky Oliver Stone ballistics, they inform at least one person about the unnecessary horror of the Japanese Whaling Program, or Shark Finning, or Seal Clubbing. Are their methods questionable? Sure. But Greenpeace and the rest of the NGOs with similar environmental interests do a very good job of separating themselves PR-wise from Sea Shepherd. And Sea Shepherd does a very good job of making sure to separate themselves from Greenpeace and the rest of the NGOs by publicly shitting on them whenever possible and complaining all day long how no one wants to share logistics and intel with them. There are plenty of Greenpeacers that privately like Sea Shepherd and vice-versa. Greenpeace loves when Sea Shepherd plays the fool and Sea Shepherd loves when Greenpeace plays it aloof and legitimate. They are all playing to their own target audiences...at the end of the day it is all to the same ends. And we all have our part to play--agitators and agent provocateurs too.

Just look at all the publicity they are getting from all of us! The more we talk and post about it, the better it is for Sea Shepherd. Any publicity is good publicity...whether it is true or not, it is all propaganda...all of it.

--Sharky

technorati tags: Sharks, Whales, Greenpeace, NGO, environmentalism, Seal Clubbing, Japanese Whaling, Animal Planet, Whale Wars

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