The 10:10 mini-movie, satirical comedy and Monty Python

Regarding this grotesque and revealing 10:10 mini-movie No Pressure, in which carbon sinners are so spectacularly offed: No doubt many greenies and lefties are saying of the disgust and outrage it has provoked: "Oh, those conservatives are so literal minded. It was all just meant to be a bit of a laff."

No, it wasn't. And it didn't get many laffs - certainly not from the growing number of climate sceptics. I suspect that many of those who are sympathetic to the group's aims weren't exactly rolling on the floor laughing, either. It was just witless, nasty and disturbing.

See, it's not just a bit of light entertainment that's meant to have some pithy social commentary thrown in for good measure. (And even if it were, the detonators instead of the detonatees would have been the butt of the joke, surely?)

No, in this film the satirical targets are the literal targets: those who won't get with the program. But look at who gets blown up in other comedy sketches. Take the Mr Creosote segment in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

The butt of the joke - the target - is a big fat rich bastard dining in a French restaurant. He's a farrago of many widely reviled characteristics including extreme rudeness, greed, and gluttony. And he brings his spectacular intestine-splattering fate entirely upon himself. That's what makes it okay and we can laugh at it. Also, it's not asking us to change our entire lifestyle after we've seen it.

But the 10:10 mini-film is. Its primary aim is to promote a campaign that is, er, deadly serious. The very clear subtext is this:

We are determined to get you to change your behaviour to our requirements immediately. If you won't go along with this then we believe you deserve to be blown to bits. Of course we won't actually do that. But we fantasize about it, and we know that others do as well. If we can get enough people sharing our committed, vengeful attitude on this then the rest of you will feel so intimidated that you'll just have do what we demand whether you like it or not.

That's totalitarianism, pure and simple. And there's nothing remotely funny about that.

And if you think that it's a bit of stretch to say that greenies do actually fantasize about killing people who don't share their crazy views, then read this blog by Hollywood socialite and greenie Siel Ju. She clearly concurs with the ad's malignant sentiment, but sensibly advises that blowing up people should be "kept an imaginary fantasy".

Many lefties no doubt think that the ad was justified, since they believe that those on the other side are far more mean-spirited. But has there ever been a conservative ad which included scenes of greenies being slaughtered like this? Obviously not.

This is because conservatives, while no fans of the left, just aren't that full of loathing as a rule. And in the unlikely event of anyone on the right actually managing to put together something like this, well it just wouldn't see the light of day.

The ugly truth is that not only are deep green zealots more likely to create something this vicious, their sick visions are also much more likely to be (slickly) produced and shown to the world (even if they're ultimately pulled from view because of complaints, which occurred in this case). This is because the media establishment is dominated by politically correct types who support their cause. Therefore it's no surprise that 10:10 got the required cash (some of it from government, apparently) and film industry heavyweights such as Richard Curtis and Gillian Anderson were happy to be involved in the ad's creation.

But isn't it sad that green totalitarians have such heft in the so-called "creative" industries (such as film and TV) in the West? Wasn't art about imaginatively celebrating the human spirit and its astonishing ability to keep rising above primitive and destructive instincts, not vividly portraying the gory culling of those deemed guilty of anti-planet thought and lifestyle crimes?

As any thinking person in the arts world knows only too well, there's something truly sinister about this dominant culture. And it's been this way for a very, very long time.