James Cameron on Glenn Beck: 'His ideas are poisonous'

You gotta love James Cameron.

He never backs down from a fight. After firing off a bunch of rounds against 3-D conversions, basically calling them hack work, he still had enough ammo left to turn his sights toward the blackboard-wielding Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, who's had it in for Cameron ever since the filmmaker made the 2007 documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus." Beck, then at CNN, dismissed the documentary by saying, "Many people believe James Cameron officially has tossed his hat in the ring today and is officially running for anti-Christ."

According to this Hollywood Reporter post recounting a news conference that was held Tuesday to promote the DVD release of "Avatar," slated for Earth Day, Cameron finally returned fire, unleashing a profanity-laced tirade against Beck, calling him a "madman" along with other words I can't reprint here. Cameron said Beck was dangerous "because his ideas are poisonous," and challenged Beck to debate him on environmental issues. 

Cameron was still seething over right-wing attacks on "Avatar," which many conservatives mocked for its earnest pro-environment message and anti-military views. Cameron dismissed the attacks, saying, "They're just people ranting away, lost in their little bubbles of reality, steeped in their own hatred, their own fear and hatred. That's where it all comes from."

As for people who don't believe in global warming, Cameron added: "I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads .... Anybody that is a global warming denier at this point in time has got their head so deeply up their [expletive] I'm not sure they could hear me."

This is just a hunch, but I think that if Cameron had been running last December's climate change conference in Copenhagen, he could have knocked a few heads together and the assembled nations would've gotten a lot more accomplished. Maybe the U.N. could make Cameron an ambassador-at-large, in charge of keeping rogue nations in line. I mean, Glenn Beck is just too easy a target. I think Cameron needs a more formidable adversary.

What do you think? I'm betting that if we sent Cameron to Iran, he could knock out their nuclear arms program in three weeks flat. Any takers?

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Photo: James Cameron. Credit: Joshua Gates Weisberg / EPA.
 

Comments

[carla]

James Cameron is an idiot. Nothing has confirmed so deeply the notion that hollywood is full of out of touch and hollow heads then these comments made by cameron. Proof that movie talents are not indicative of a person's intelligence. Perhaps James head is so way up his "expletive" that he can't see that his head is so way up his "expletive".

I am a living breathing child born and raised in a socialist and communist system. Trust me, listen to Glenn Beck and verify it with books/facts and believe it in due time because it will be very critical.

[Rocky]

Nice to see Cameron telling the truth about Beck, but even nicer to see him standing up for global warming.

Obviously the greenhouse effect is real, or the Earth would be as cold as the Moon, which has no atmosphere. And obviously since industrialization we've been pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Sea levels are rising, as measured by satellite regularly (not to mention the islands that are disappearing) and both the Arctic and Antarctic are losing ice overall. Sure we had a cold winter, but that was due to warmth in the Arctic and the Pacific pushing the jet stream around. 2009 was the fifth warmest year in over a century.

The question is how far is it going to go, which no-one can answer with absolute certainty. But whatever happens the risk of disaster is very great. As Cameron says, it is just a fact that the average temperature of the Earth is trending upwards, though. And it's great to hear someone say that clearly after all the ignorance so prevalent from bloggers and website commenters lately.

[TEIN]

"madman"? "because his ideas are poisonous,"? "They're just people ranting away, lost in their little bubbles of reality, steeped in their own hatred, their own fear and hatred. That's where it all comes from."

James it seem that you have a little bit of your own hate/fear/anger issues. I really am starting to enjoy this "fear" comment/argument from Libbie/Progessives....if you don't agree with them, then you fear them.

[Cal Godot]

Why send him to Iran? There's plenty of jingoistic, militant, anti-intellectual nonsense going on in America - Cameron can clean up overspending in the defense industry, free up some money for education, health care, and infrastructure, rather than putting 80% of our taxes toward destructive uses. Or we could send him to Israel, where he could "knock a few heads together" and maybe get the Israeli government to abide by treaties and international law. Those would be much better targets, much more influential players than Iran. If the US and Israel changed, the whole world might follow. (Yeah, I know: it's asking too much of Americans to stop spending so much money on the military. Better that we cut schools, hospitals, and public assistance for the poor. Better that we spend millions a day killing people, rather than millions a month helping them have better lives.)

[Valerie From Oregon]

There's a couple of people on our block that think Global Warming is just a scare tactic by liberals, then again I had to tell them that women are now allowed to vote!

[gordon gordon]

beck has millons of viewers. avatar seems stupid i wont watch the crap. i am sure beck will debate him any time, if cameron can debate and not just start calling him names as everyone knows the far left has to do when their ideas are nonsense. i mean cameron steals story lines and basically has no talent. if you think global warming is man made then you are arrogant, mother earth can and will take care of herself. did you spend winter in the lower 48??? the climate has had cycles since the beginning and has nothing to do with us. if the science was there to prove it then why make up stuff and alter the findings? hollywoodite elitists like cameron are way out of touch with real america, clueless....radical name callers like cameron are dangerous, not beck... go back to playland and play dress-up and make believe land and leave real problems to real problem solvers. james cameron means zero and always will.

[sfkid]

All of a sudden I am a big James Cameron fan!

[Peg]

Good grief,the man was born in Canada and makes second rate moveies . Who cares about this looser. Yeah,he lost to his wife!!!!!!!!!!!

[jlb]

Money and wealth do not make someone understand anything. On the other hand privileged people, usually react to their pampering with unusual ideas, and think themselves the wiser for it. They have too many people kissing their behinds who need to keep their jobs and themselves in favor.
Politics is difficult. No states are blue or red from space. Peaceful people should be supported in the right to have contrary opinions.
Global warming is very complicated.
Intelligent and educated people have different ideas about it. If you cannot look at the data belonging to opposing mindsets because only stupid people could believe it is something other than automobile emissions, it implies a mindset already convinced it knows everything they need to know.

I worry about common sense being very far from common. It is easy to be mean. Study, make up your own mind and be nice.

[Rich Grayson]

I will take the challenge. I want to see James at high noon March 31 on Commerce Street, Babbitt Minnesota. Please bring your best because you will need it.