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Why Environmentalists Hate Captain Planet

2018-07-27 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay

Formerly titled Why Some Environmentalists Hate Captain Planet.

Hank, an environmentalist, argues that Captain Planet and the Planeteers, though it taught good habits and built support for environmental policy, turned people in extractive industries into subhuman caricatured villains, dehumanizing those environmentalists must negotiate with and deepening a rift that mirrors today's politics.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Captain Planet: Hank's childhood view, distaste for it in his environmental studies, synopsis, star cast, Ted Turner's funding

  • ★★ Hank says he grew up with Captain Planet and the Planeteers and always knew it was a bad TV show, but thought it at least had a good message. — 00:00:04
  • ★★ When Hank started his master's degree in environmental studies, he was surprised to find much ambivalence and even outright distaste for Captain Planet. — 00:00:14
  • ★★ Hank says the show was half fun adventure and half tips for lessening your impact on the environment. — 00:00:41
  • ★★ Hank says that pitch sold the show, for its first season at least, to a ridiculously star-studded cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Meg Ryan, LeVar Burton and Sting. — 00:00:48
  • ★ Hank marvels that Jeff Goldblum voiced a greedy, big-nosed, rat-looking villain poisoning the water supply. (playful) — 00:00:56
  • ★★ Hank says the whole project was conceived and funded by Ted Turner, who also owned the TV stations it ran on. — 00:01:06

00:01:12 — Villains as straw men for extractive-industry workers, who are real people environmentalists must work with

  • ★★★ Hank, a definite environmentalist, says kids' shows need villains, but applied to real-world issues the villain becomes a straw man for someone real: a caricature. — 00:01:17
  • ★★★ Hank says the villains are subhuman evildoers who destroy the environment for fun, mostly physically deformed, many coded lower class, and mostly in extractive industries never shown working responsibly. — 00:01:30
  • ★ Hank asks why one villain being a garbage collector is supposed to be bad. (playful) — 00:01:48
  • ★★★ Hank says the show's lesson seems to be that this work cannot be done sustainably and that the people who do it are monsters. — 00:01:52
  • ★★★ Hank says that portrayal is unfair to the people and families who depend on that work, and also dishonest. — 00:02:03
  • ★★ Hank says it might look to some like rich people in buildings of mined minerals, powered by fossil fuels, painting those who supply their luxuries as evil; Ted Turner owns private jets. (hedged) — 00:02:09
  • ★★★ Hank says we cut trees to build homes and drill for oil because people buy it to get to work and the grocery store; extractive-industry workers are real people, not pigmen. — 00:02:21
  • ★★★ Hank says environmentalists must work with these real people to pass policies; having been literally dehumanized by a movement that now wants good-faith discussion isn't helpful. — 00:02:40
  • ★★★ Hank grants Captain Planet did good, teaching good behaviors and creating young supporters of environmental regulation and sustainable energy, but much of that energy came from vilifying people. — 00:02:54

00:03:15 — Children's shows about politics; an intentional rift, a microcosm of today's politics; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says children's television is not the place for political nuance, so maybe children's shows should not be about politics; respect or love for the environment alone would be fine. (hedged) — 00:03:15
  • ★★★ Hank says the show looks like an intentional formation of a rift, teaching children that the problem is bad humans rather than hard problems, and that people who disagree are monsters. (hedged) — 00:03:32
  • ★★ Hank says this looks a little like a microcosm of all politics these days. (hedged) — 00:03:45
  • ★★★ Hank concludes Captain Planet helped win some good policies but deepened a rift; 'we did that', and it is worth thinking about. (hedged) — 00:03:48

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says bias is hard to see in the moment, and it is easy to feel justified simplifying your adversaries' stories when you see yourself at war. — video description
  • ★★ The description says content for any age that accurately portrays humanity's difficulties is fine and completely apolitical. (hedged) — video description
  • ★★ Hank writes that, although the creators of Captain Planet say each villain represents the extremes rather than the norms, none of them is modeled with nuance, at least at first. — video description
  • ★★★ Hank writes that the show's portrayal of laborers as subhuman troubles him most: billionaire Looten Plunder being terrible is one thing, but showing garbage collectors and machine operators as monsters angers him. — video description

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Captain Planet and the Planeteers · environmentalism

Also: dehumanization · ethical dualism · fossil fuel · Gaia · political polarization · Ted Turner

Only in the description or credits: Jeff Goldblum · LeVar Burton · Looten Plunder · Meg Ryan · Sting · Whoopi Goldberg

Also centred on environmentalism: Maine Inspires Deep Thoughts · How to Be Green Without Being a Prick · I Disagree with Me (Thoughts from Lake Powell) · Wrong on the Internet

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