The Story of—Wait she said that controversial thing!

I love The Story of Stuff. At my old job we had a Green Team and I showed this video on my day to chair the meeting. It went over well, and we had a good discussion about it afterwards. I’m glad to see that they’ve added so much since. My initial reaction is the same today as is was then, but my view of causes in general has recently been influenced.

The videos are highly informative, we should all be aware of the subjects, and the facts are mostly correct. But that is only because much of these videos are loaded with opinion. Although the author would certainly be displeased, I believe the blend of fact and opinion makes this video similar to the tactics implored by Fox News. When the opinion is isolated, the facts hold up moderately well, but not completely.

For example, there is no citation about the “fact” that 95% of what we buy is destined for a landfill within 6 months. I know this is not true because of the research I recently did for my flash infographic. Nearly half of what we dispose of is either recycled, composted or burned. Check out my infographic here.

She also discusses the corporate influence on Washington DC. I’m glad she went there, and I feel that this issue is the underlying cause of all of these problems. But once again, I feel she goes too far with her opinion — even to the point of sounding whiny.

This leads me a bigger point, one that I’ve become intensely aware of since the Occupy Wall Street campaign began: Lack of credibility in your argument hinders the credibility of your cause. Overly-opinionated arguments open up the floodgates for criticism, causing many important causes to fall short. I see this as part of the flaw with The Story of Stuff and occupy Wall St. right now. And this is a damn shame. Check out Glenn Beck interviewing Lee Doren about the video here. Their criticism is spot on, but the message becomes clouded (although Beck does agree that America is a consumer nation).

The flip side to my argument is that controversy and opinion pushes these videos/causes outward. Beck would likely not be commenting on, and therefore informing others of the existence of, this video had it not covered controversial topics in an opinionated way.