The End is Near, Inc

[nacho]

Whew...Pagan got herself in trouble writing about some nutjob survivalist

The article:

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_end_is_near_inc/page1

The response:

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/bunkers-r-not-us-correcting-boston-magazines-take-movement/41295

And there are hilarious comments at both sites.

One of the sticking points was that the survivalist idiot is out for money.  He says not so.  So...let's look at his front page:

http://www.chrismartenson.com/

Man.  Car salesman or not?

[Nubbins]

I didn't think Pagan's article really painted him in that negative of a light?  Maybe I'm just not reading it carefully.

I also don't see what the big deal is with this guy making money off his message.  He's got a family to feed, after all.  I suppose encouraging fringe lunatics to continue their lunacy with renewed fervor might be kind of sketchy, but beyond that I see nothing wrong with him profiting from his message.

[nacho]

It wasn't!  She was actually pretty even-handed.  The only real criticism is more her own doom-saying that "the masses" following Martenson will fuck up the message.

What gets me is how every one of the commentators both on BM and on Martenson's site appear to be...illiterate.  Pagan makes her poppy Mad Max comment, but not as a reflection on Martenson.  Just a doomsayers prediction of an oil-hungry future.  Maybe they've never seen Mad Max?

And I love Martenson in the comments on his site ranting about the shooting club scene -- basically insisting that the road was not a "dusty lane" but "gravel."

But...Pagan calls it a gravel road in the article.  So...?

[Nubbins]

Yeah, I think he's harping on some minor details.  The Mad Max reference probably went over everyone's head because when you think of that movie, you think of the Thunderdome and a bunch of mutated freaks running around in football pads with mohawks.

But yeah, I read the whole thing and didn't feel like she was taking any pot shots at the guy or anything.  Maybe the photoshopped picture of him in a bunker was a bit much, but they agreed to remove it, so I don't understand why the guy's got his panties in a wad.

[nacho]

She reports the same -- she wasn't trying to cause trouble, but the weirdness of the guy and his group kind of speak for themselves.  Says the whole thing smacked of a Scientology cult. There was no way to avoid those undertones.