Rainn Wilson changes his Twitter name — sort of — for climate change ‘stunt’
When actor-comedian-producer Rainn Wilson took on the Twitter name of “@The_Acid Rain” this week, there was an immediate response.
“I was one of those idiots who had the thought that this was an opportunity to get a real response to the climate change debate,” Wilson told the Boston Globe. “I just didn’t think it would be one that would make people happy or would be something that would really make the world better or change people’s minds about the issue.”
In a follow-up interview Monday, Wilson said he never really considered the implications of a name change.
“I didn’t want to be known for being a climate change celebrity,” Wilson said. “That’s not what that is, and I decided that if being a climate change celebrity was the reason for the name change, I probably shouldn’t do it.”
Related: You’re not a real climate change advocate anymore, right?
If anything, Wilson said, he wanted to make his name even more real by bringing his Twitter account into alignment with his activism.
While he said he wouldn’t be tweeting things like “climate change is bullshit” or “save the world, I have a plan of how I’m going to save it” because of the name change, he said he wanted to respond to tweets where people suggested he was a climate change activist to get the point across.
“I want to give people something they don’t get every day from Twitter and from Facebook and from other social networks: If you’re not tweeting something, then you’re not doing it,” Wilson said. “We need all different kinds of voices on Twitter and on Facebook and on the Internet if we’re going to build a stronger community around the issue of climate change.”
Wilson added that he thought a few examples of the kind of thing he wanted to respond to — “No one’s doing anything about the climate change and why don’t we get on with saving the world” — wouldn’t seem so silly anymore.
“If you’re not saying anything because you don’t believe enough, you’re not making anything happen,” he said.
Twitter has taken other steps to make it easier to follow the actions of climate change advocates from some