Lie to me.
As the editor and owner of Fracking Resource Guide, I’ve heard everything from “my secret fracking fluid is safe”, to “I need sweetheart regulation and tax deals for my Big Oil and Gas folks because we are still having trouble making ends meet in our family.”
For instance, can you convince a room of kids that fracking is safe using cupcakes and icing? “Encana made a video (no longer posted) Fracking Cake for Kids – A Look Underground. How about having kids compare natural gas to farting in Spectra Energy’s “Kids Say [the] Darndest Things About Natural Gas”?
And there really is a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FPCA) blog, but the Yes Men have us wondering about the truth in ways that make us smarter by asking us to verify the legitimacy of the messages we receive through the media.
Wikipedia: The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos.[1] Through various actions, the Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about problematic social and political issues. To date, the duo have produced three films: The Yes Men (2003), The Yes Men Fix the World (2009),[1] and The Yes Men Are Revolting (2014). In these films, they impersonate entities that they dislike, a practice that they call “identity correction.”[2] The Yes Men operate under the mission statement that lies can expose truth. They create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they intend to spoof, which have led to numerous interview, conference, and TV talk show invitations. They espouse the belief that corporations and governmental organizations often act in dehumanizing ways toward the public. Elaborate props are sometimes part of the ruse (e.g. Survivaball), as shown in their 2003 DVD release The Yes Men. The Yes Men have collaborated with other groups of similar interest, including Improv Everywhere, Andrew Boyd and Steve Lambert.[3]
Wikipedia: The Yes Men
Their work makes urgent civil disobedience by activists such as Appalachia Rising and scientists like James Hansen look all the more vibrant.
Unlike Josh Fox and Michael Moore whose “in your face” documentaries rub the liars’ nose in doodoo, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno serve up matter-of-fact impersonations that put their personalities in the back seat. Their tagline: “Sometimes it takes a lie to expose the truth.”
See also: The Yes Men, Contributor. The Yes Men Fix the World’s a Riot. No, Really. 18 Mar 2010. Huffington Post.
The film’s story is simple: two guys, armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, infiltrate the world of big business, where we make a lot of bad, powerful people really uncomfortable.
You’ll see us knock $2 billion off Dow Chemical’s share price, expose New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for the corporate lackey he is, and show some of the most powerful free-market spokesmen to be C-level liars.
Around you in the theater you’ll hear spontaneous cheering, multiple bursts of hysterical laughter, a few sniffles, and the occasional thud of an audience member rolling in the aisles. If past screenings at Sundance, Berlin, and many other places are any guide, you’ll also see a standing ovation, and, as the lights go up, a room of people visibly eager to rise up and fight.
The Yes Men, Contributor. The Yes Men Fix the World’s a Riot. No, Really. 18 Mar 2010. Huffington Post.
See also: Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. “The Yes Men Fix the World”: In New Film, Anti-Corporate Pranksters the Yes Men Continue to Jolt Polluters and Profiteers. 23 Jul 2009. Democracy Now.
Anti-corporate pranksters and gonzo political activists the Yes Men are back with a new film, The Yes Men Fix the World. The movie follows Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno as they infiltrate and expose the world of big business through high-profile outrageous pranks. From ExxonMobil to Halliburton, no industry is too big for the Yes Men’s hoaxes. [includes rush transcript]
MYÂ GOODMAN:Â Your website?
ANDY BICHLBAUM: theyesmen.org.
AMY GOODMAN: What happened in the New York Times last summer?
ANDYÂ BICHLBAUM:Â A lot.
AMYÂ GOODMAN:Â Very quickly.
ANDY BICHLBAUM: We published a fake New York Times, announcing the end of the Iraq war, all the great things that could happen. It was one week after Obama’s election. And the paper was set six months in the future, and it was about a world that we could see if we rise up and make it happen. And the message is really that Obama being elected is not enough, of course. And now we know that very well. We have to have public pressure to make him do what we want him to do.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you ever been arrested, you guys, for doing what you’re doing?
ANDYÂ BICHLBAUM:Â Not for this.
MIKE BONANNO: Never been arrested. But if anybody wants to be arrested, we’re helping launch a website called “Beyond Talk,” which is a pledge of civil disobedience. So anybody who wants to participate in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience in the name of climate change can go to beyondtalk.net and sign up.
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. “The Yes Men Fix the World”: In New Film, Anti-Corporate Pranksters the Yes Men Continue to Jolt Polluters and Profiteers. 23 Jul 2009. Democracy Now.
Where is the truth about the Marcellus Shale gas play? It’s here and out there, far flung from British Columbia, Wyoming, Colorado through Texas, Louisiana, Alabama to Pennsylvania, New York and on to Poland, Paris, Malaysia, China, India, and Nigeria; from corporate corruption to lax government oversight and environmental justice. It’s hiding in the boardrooms waiting for the whistle blowers and insiders to say that we really needed those environmental impact statements to be honest after all, after there is not a drop of water left to drink. (Neil Zusman, Jan. 30, 2011.)
Fake Newspaper/Database, real website as reported by YesMen, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno.
See: Video – The Yes Men Fix the World trailer. (2009). Full 1:35 video from YouTube below.
See also: Yes Men Claim Leonore Annenberg Prize For Art Award
June 18, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TOP HEADLINE: WORLD LEADERS SIGN PACT TO AVERT CLIMATE DISASTER
Newspaper Ignites Hope, Announces “Civil Disobedience Database”
In a front-page ad in today’s International Herald Tribune, the leaders of the European Union thank the European public for having engaged in months of civil disobedience leading up to the Copenhagen climate conference that will be held this December. “It was only thanks to your massive pressure over the past six months that we could so dramatically shift our climate-change policies…. To those who were arrested, we thank you.”
There was only one catch: the paper was fake.
Looking exactly like the real thing, but dated December 19th, 2009, a million copies of the fake paper were distributed worldwide by thousands of volunteers in order to show what could be achieved at the Copenhagen climate conference that is scheduled for Dec. 7-18, 2009. (At the moment, the conference is aiming for much more modest cuts, dismissed by leading climate scientists as too little, too late to stave off runaway processes that will lead to millions or even billions of casualties.)
The paper describes in detail a powerful (and entirely possible) new treaty to bring carbon levels down below 350 parts per million – the level climate scientists say we need to achieve to avoid climate catastrophe. One article describes how a website, beyondtalk.net, mobilized thousands of people to put their bodies on the line to confront climate change policies – ever since way back in June, 2009.
Although the newspaper is a fake (its production and launch were coordinated by Greenpeace), the website is real. Beyondtalk.net is part of a growing network of websites calling for direct action on climate change, building on statements made in recent months by noted political figures. (For example, in September Nobel laureate Al Gore asserted that “we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants.”)
See also: The Yes Men. “Chevron – We Agree.”
See also: Hansen, James E.Storms of My Grandchildren : The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. 1st U.S. ed, Bloomsbury USA, 2009.
See also: Stephen Holden. “All Suited Up for Mischief, to Rumple Stuffed Shirts.” NYT. Oct. 7, 2009.
See also: Anne C. Mulkern. “U.S. Chamber Sues Activists Over Climate Stunt.” NYT. Oct. 27, 2009.
See: Civil Disobedience
See: Criminalising Civil Disobedience
See: Appalachia Rising
See: Chevron Human Energy Stories | Addressing Climate Change.
See: Peabody coal company threatens to sue over getting punked
