You have an amazing knack for injecting humour into serious topics. "I feel a bit like I’m handing a trophy to a 40 year-old who crossed the street without shitting his pants" had me laughing out loud.
Yea, the risk of peppering one's prose with hyperbolic insults is that they're, well, hyperbolic and therefore invite easy refutation that tends to distract from the original point. The GOP might be a dysfunctional mess, but when the alternative is self-appointed "experts" who pretend extended school closures have no impact on educational outcomes and think European social welfare programs don't require European levels of taxation, it's pretty apparent the USA doesn't have just one outlier party relative to its international peers.
Given that global fertility rates are dropping like a stone, a lot of the climate alarmism is overblown.
And let's face it: Americans will slap a Love Your Mother bumper sticker on the back of the SUV, use a reusable shopping bag or buy a cute aluminum water bottle from Urban Outfitters to save the planet. But that is about it. Democrats love high energy prices in theory, but now that we got them, they are implementing gas tax holidays. Americans don't want European style gas prices. Nor do they want higher utility bills.
Ultimately, climate will depend on what India and China do, and we have zero say in that matter.
Manichean, hyperbolic, zero-sum, catastrophizing has done more to setback climate change than legislative intransigence. Chicken Little voices need to be snuffed in order to respond positively to this Repub offer and make a deal. Nuclear energy is the key. Carbon taxes, renewables, or capture are just as expensive and far less reliable. This need not be hard, but its gonna take gutsy leadership to shepherd it through. Meaning...it won't happen and we'll probably find a different, slower, more circuitous technological salvation after some terrifying but not existential amount of unnecessary damage. Humans human.
"Maybe my perception is skewed by proximity; maybe this is like thinking that everyone’s parents are cooler than yours."
I'm sorry to say that the Republican party still looks batshit insane when seen from six time zones away. Our politicians don't really compare their opponents to Trump because, yes, Trump was so obviously deranged that anyone looks reassuringly sane in comparison.
You made me laugh at the phrase “shoveling puppies into a blast furnace.” At least the mental image that popped into my head was in the style of old school animation.
You have an amazing knack for injecting humour into serious topics. "I feel a bit like I’m handing a trophy to a 40 year-old who crossed the street without shitting his pants" had me laughing out loud.
>party that sews vaccine skepticism
It's "sows"
And I seem to remember joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Andrew Cuomo sowing their own vaccine skepticism. Weird how that gets memory holed.
Yea, the risk of peppering one's prose with hyperbolic insults is that they're, well, hyperbolic and therefore invite easy refutation that tends to distract from the original point. The GOP might be a dysfunctional mess, but when the alternative is self-appointed "experts" who pretend extended school closures have no impact on educational outcomes and think European social welfare programs don't require European levels of taxation, it's pretty apparent the USA doesn't have just one outlier party relative to its international peers.
I don’t know why people are picking up on this and giving ‘on accident’ a pass. Ughhh
Given that global fertility rates are dropping like a stone, a lot of the climate alarmism is overblown.
And let's face it: Americans will slap a Love Your Mother bumper sticker on the back of the SUV, use a reusable shopping bag or buy a cute aluminum water bottle from Urban Outfitters to save the planet. But that is about it. Democrats love high energy prices in theory, but now that we got them, they are implementing gas tax holidays. Americans don't want European style gas prices. Nor do they want higher utility bills.
Ultimately, climate will depend on what India and China do, and we have zero say in that matter.
Manichean, hyperbolic, zero-sum, catastrophizing has done more to setback climate change than legislative intransigence. Chicken Little voices need to be snuffed in order to respond positively to this Repub offer and make a deal. Nuclear energy is the key. Carbon taxes, renewables, or capture are just as expensive and far less reliable. This need not be hard, but its gonna take gutsy leadership to shepherd it through. Meaning...it won't happen and we'll probably find a different, slower, more circuitous technological salvation after some terrifying but not existential amount of unnecessary damage. Humans human.
"Maybe my perception is skewed by proximity; maybe this is like thinking that everyone’s parents are cooler than yours."
I'm sorry to say that the Republican party still looks batshit insane when seen from six time zones away. Our politicians don't really compare their opponents to Trump because, yes, Trump was so obviously deranged that anyone looks reassuringly sane in comparison.
You made me laugh at the phrase “shoveling puppies into a blast furnace.” At least the mental image that popped into my head was in the style of old school animation.
"sews vaccine skepticism"
What, like needlepoint?
I need to watch Midnight Sky now
I need to shovel puppies into a blast furnace now
Just watched the trailer, I'll watch Sunshine instead
Great post, thanks!