A Misguided Protest/Exercise in Greenface
We like to highlight public events featuring Zombies participating peacefully in civic discourse, or even just the Living dressing as Differently Animated citizens, in some circumstances. The ZRC remains wary and vigilant against exploitation and defamation of the Differently Animated community at these protests, however, and unfortunately we sometimes see just that:
Those in Downtown Knoxville might have noticed a crowd of people with signs in Market Square on Friday evening, some of whom were dressed like zombies.
The zombies were in fact people rallying against TVA’s proposed construction of a new nuclear reactor at its Bellefonte Nuclear site.
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Protestors said the reason they dressed up like zombies is because trying to build a new reactor at TVA’s Bellefonte nuclear site in Alabama would be like trying to bring something back from the dead.
What the? I mean, seriously? This isn’t even a decent ANALOGY. A shiny *new* reactor is not bringing anything *back* from anywhere! That’s like saying a baby is an attempt to bring society back from the dead. Wha?
Some days I long for an adversary who at least knows how to construct proper and internally consistent propaganda.
Meanwhile, for shame on these protesters for attempting to tie Zombies negatively to yet another random personal grievance, this time against nuclear power.
For shame.
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TVA’s Bellefonte reactor is described as a “zombie reactor” because TVA suspended construction on it in 1988 and it has just been sitting “dead” for 23 years and now they’re attempting to revive it/ “bring it back to life”.
TVA to move ahead with Bellefonte nuclear reactor
The particular nuclear reactor that’s being protested here is far from a “shiny new reactor,” given that initial construction began back in 1974 and a standard operating life is 40 years, the reactor at Bellefonte could be operating at a ripe old age of nearly 90.
VOICES: TVA’s Bellefonte plant is a nuclear Ford Pinto
The article you linked to didn’t make that clear, but the fault lies with WBIR’s reporters, not with the protestors. I can see why you would think the zombie nuclear analogies don’t make sense from the information you had, but that doesn’t mean that other more coherent articles aren’t out there.
Zombies Protest TVA Possibly Restarting Bellefonte Nuclear Reactor Construction
Fair enough on the reactor’s age, but refurbishing something doesn’t make it a Zombie either. A Zombie is a profoundly transformed, once-Living individual, with thoughts and feelings. They’re not an appropriate target for scorn and derision, even by analogy. A reactor was never alive, it doesn’t feel anything, it’s a tool. If used improperly, a very dangerous tool. But to label an engineering project one does not like as ‘Zombie’ does a disservice, both to engineering (by personalizing and anthropomorphizing it) and to the Differently Animated Community, who care about this planet every bit as much as the Living.
I think the analogy is just referring to the undead nature of zombies and not trying to make any claims one way or another about the existence of thoughts and feelings of zombies.
I feel that any scorn and derision on the parts of the protestors was being directed at TVA, and not at the Differently Animated Community, and definitely no one was implying that zombies don’t care about the planet.