Sheldon Rampton — who co-authored the scaremongering book Mad Cow U.S.A. with John Stauber — has given his first interview on the subject since a single infected cow was identified in the state of Washington. The publication that garners this exclusive wasn’t the New York Times or the Washington Post. It was the Socialist Worker, the official publication of the International Socialist Organization (ISO).
The ISO is not just another “progressive” group. As its “where we stand” web page helpfully points out, the organization not only supports, but attempts to implement, a real-life revolution. “Reforms within the capitalist system cannot put an end to oppression and exploitation,” ISO says. “Capitalism must be overthrown.”
“To achieve socialism,” these dinosaurs continue, “the most militant workers must be organized into a revolutionary socialist party to provide political leadership and organization. The activities of the ISO are directed at taking the initial steps to building such a party.” Given his Marxist audience, Rampton couldn’t help attacking corporations for “disempowering individuals.”
The ISO’s interest in Sheldon Rampton — and vice versa — is indicative of a larger pattern in scaremongering about mad cow disease. Groups with radical social goals have fanned the flames of mad-cow fears as a convenient vehicle for promoting their (often unrelated) agendas.
Visit our Mad Cow Scare web page to learn about the Luddites who despise modern technology enough that they are willing to use mad cow disease as an excuse to take us back to stone-age farming. Educate yourself about animal-rights zealots who want to permanently eliminate beef, pork, poultry, eggs, milk, cheese, leather, fur, circuses, zoos, aquariums, pet ownership, rodeos, horse racing, hunting, fishing and even testing for medical treatments. For them, mad cow disease is just the latest news-hook for “the cause.”
Like the ISO, which views capitalism as the root of all evil, these revolutionaries don’t particularly care about food safety, and they conveniently ignore the fact that our food supply is among the safest the world has ever seen. They just want to use exaggerated mad-cow fears to promote their preferred flavors of radical social change.
