Tim Ball “on the outskirts of civilization”

A Jesse Ventura conspiracy theory video, warning that “global warming is a plot by a powerful cabal out to extort, tax and control you and every one of us,” features an incompetently disguised Dr. Timothy Ball playing the part of a scientist who is hiding “on the outskirts of civilization” in fear for his life.

The video is a production of “Tru TV” – some YouTube wannabe – and it begins with some spooky looking West Coast weather and a ditzy researcher saying, “I admit, I’m worried. Once we’re on the other side, I’ll be out of cell phone range.”

Scary! Except she is quite clearly riding a BC Ferry through the high-priced real estate of the Canadian Gulf Islands on her way to Tim Ball’s hometown of Victoria, B.C. She was likely in more danger – and about the same distance from “civilization” – while trying to get her manicure kit through customs in the Vancouver airport.

For the record, and contrary to the video voiceover, Tim Ball has never stood “at the top of his field,” unless purjering on behalf of Calgary oil and gas companies turns out to be a scientific specialty.

For most viewers, Ventura’s breathless theorizing is fall-down funny, except for the risk that some people might take the buffoonery seriously. But portraying Tim Ball as some towering academic who is cowering out of the limelight is incredibly dishonest, especially when you can Google Ball on YouTube and find that even two weeks earlier, he was grabbing the chance to promote himself as an esteemed denier of record.

If Jesse “The Body” Ventura has something to say, he might try making his point without the phony melodrama. Otherwise, like Ball, he comes off as just another washed up hack, trying to leverage the fake controversy about climate change to get attention.