Irishman Phelim McAleer is a former journalist turned filmmaker whose most recent work is the "anti-environmentalist" documentary Mine Your Own Business. So, yeah, he's part of the head-in-the-sand camp which future generations will likely regard with unspeakable contempt as they hoard fuel Mad Max-style in a miserable, eco-apocalyptic landscape. Which is exactly what the well-intentioned new documentary The Age of Stupid is about; it stars Pete Postlethwaite as a global archivist living in 2055, flipping through the pivotal news stories from 2004 - 2008 and wondering why we didn’t stop global warming when we had a chance.
The film debuted on Monday with a star-studded premiere, and McAleer was there to poop in the punchbowl, asking various celebrities on the "green carpet" an inconvenient question: Did they travel by carbon-spewing airplane to attend the premiere? Sure, it's a simplistic argument to say no one is allowed to advocate change without first reducing their personal impact to absolute zero, but McAleer, who'd been given press credentials, was entitled to ask uncomfortable questions. Apparently the film's director didn't think so, and after he posed the question to her, security swooped in. Watch:
You don't get to revoke press credentials when you're asked a question you don't like. Well, fine, you can, but it's especially stupid to do it when a camera's turned on you! Has the world learned nothing from Michael Moore?
