Agenda 21 Is Now the Official Conspiracy Theory of the GOP

Here are some things that real live American human beings actually believe about a boring UN document called Agenda 21:

• that it is a covert socialist plot to rob America of its freedom
• that it will result in the establishment of an Orwellian one-world government
• that it will do so under the auspices of encouraging “sustainability”
• that “sustainability” should always be placed in scare quotes
• that it will slowly allow the United Nations to exert control over American society

These are perhaps some of the most hilarious ideas ever conceived about a two-decades old, entirely non-binding framework that was adopted to little fanfare and signed by a Republican president. Nonetheless, a growing number of Tea Party-minded conservatives are claiming that Agenda 21 is a bone fide assault on American liberty. The rumblings have been gathering steam for over a year now, coaxed on by leadership on the far right. Hey-o, Glenn Beck.

Now the idea has gone mainstream enough that the Republican National Convention actually enshrined explicit anti-Agenda 21 language into its party platform. Which is sort of like adopting an official anti-Bilderberg stance.

In reality, Agenda 21 is an entirely aspirational, rather vague set of goals by which nations might pursue more environmentally friendly development. It also contains the idea that rich countries should help poor ones do this. It’s mostly fluff that politicians can point to when conservation-minded folks get up the nerve to complain. That’s it.

In fact, here’s the incredibly innocuous preamble to the document:

1.1. Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being. However, integration of environment and development concerns and greater attention to them will lead to the fulfilment of basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a safer, more prosperous future.

Amidst all the inspirational pomp and the UN-y vocabulary, there is indeed a message, sort of: we should all work together to build more sustainable stuff to protect the environment. And make healthier communities. These are its actual, stated goals. I quote:

• (a) Promoting sustainable development through trade liberalization;
• (b) Making trade and environment mutually supportive;
• © Providing adequate financial resources to developing countries and dealing with international debt;
• (d) Encouraging macroeconomic policies conducive to environment and development.

Brace thyself for the incipient communist apocalypse!! And yes, it will be the first communist order ever ushered in by “trade liberalization.”

But again, people actually believe that. Mother Jones’ Tim Murphy explains what that belief is more specifically in his brief history of the insurgent Agenda 21 movement:

[T]o some conservatives, Agenda 21 became something far more nefarious—a gateway to a global government built on a radical doctrine of secular environmentalism. As these conservatives saw it, the agreement paved the way for the entire planet to be controlled by a central bureaucracy: Humans would be cleared out of vast swaths of settled areas—like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, for example—and instructed to live in “hobbit homes” in designated “human habitation zones” (two terms embraced by tea party activists). Public transportation would be the only kind of transportation, and governments would force contraception on their citizens to control the population level. A human life would be considered no more significant than, say, that of a manatee. “Sustainability,” the idea at the heart of the agreement, became a gateway to dystopia.

Just listen to some of these maniacs (also, this vid has 700K views):

This is all some truly out-there conspiracy theorizing. It’s literally insane. But Agenda 21 fears begot real-world opposition to public transit initiatives and sustainable development projects. Entire activist groups are arising just to fight it. In other words, these crazies are actually influencing public policy.

Which brings us back to the Republican Convention, where the party passed a resolution to oppose their fairytale nightmare. Here’s the language, I shit you not:

The United Nations Agenda 21 is being covertly pushed into local communities throughout the United States of America through the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) through local "sustainable development" policies such as Smart Growth, Wildlands Project, Resilient Cities, Regional Visioning Projects, and other "Green" or "Alternative" projects. The Republican National Committee recognizes the destructive and insidious nature of United Nations Agenda 21 and hereby exposes to the public and public policy makers the dangerous intent of the plan.

The Republican party has explicitly endorsed a mythical conspiracy theory, in other words, and has vowed to stop it. In the GOP primaries, a dude who espouses Agenda 21 drivel beat a veteran rightwing congressman. It is quite likely that the non-loony members of the GOP have gone along with this ridiculous nonsense, knowing it to be ridiculous nonsense, for a simple reason: It conveniently gives them a tool to inspire party opposition to stuff like clean energy, which pleases their fossil fueled donors. Treehugger’s Lloyd Alter has been sounding the alarm on the mainstreaming of the A21 craze for some time—and he was right. It is now relatively acceptable for your uncle to tell you that the UN is on the brink of installing a one-world government that controls how we move, live, and build our cities.

It’s nothing new for political parties—especially today’s GOP—to harbor some fringe beliefs amongst its more extreme elements. Think party-wide climate change denial, tolerated evolution-doubting, birtherism, et al. Democrats have truthers. But to actually tailor an official resolution to acknowledge and oppose 100% conspiratorial fear-mongering—that’s another step altogether. Not even birtherism has that.