I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: one of the reasons for my conversion from tepid Warmist to climate skeptic was seeing that everything proposed to solve the climate scam crisis was based on hardcore, leftist policies. That the people involved, especially the leaders, were pushing for big Big Government policies of restriction, control, and taxation/fees. Every once in a while, a Warmist lets the cat out of the bag that this is not about science, but politics. Naomi Klein is good for pushing for the end of capitalism (while selling her books for profit, of course), and there are plenty of books like hers. And here we have Benjamin Y. Fong at the NY Times
The Climate Crisis? It’s Capitalism, Stupid
….
However, the cause of the disaster that, by all indications, we are already living through should be clearer. It is not the result of the failure of individuals to adopt the moralizing strictures of “green†consciousness, and it is a sign of just how far we have to go that some still believe reusable shopping bags and composting (perfectly fine in their own right) are ways out of this mess.
We like to pick out Volkswagen’s diesel scandal, but it is only one of many carmakers that “deliberately exploit lax emissions tests.â€Â Nor does the onus fall on the foundering of Social Democratic reforms and international cooperation: Even before the United States backed out of the Paris Accord, we were well on our way to a 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit temperature rise by 2100, “a temperature that at times in the past has meant no ice at either pole.â€
The real culprit of the climate crisis is not any particular form of consumption, production or regulation but rather the very way in which we globally produce, which is for profit rather than for sustainability. So long as this order is in place, the crisis will continue and, given its progressive nature, worsen. This is a hard fact to confront. But averting our eyes from a seemingly intractable problem does not make it any less a problem. It should be stated plainly: It’s capitalism that is at fault.
As an increasing number of environmental groups are emphasizing, it’s systemic change or bust. From a political standpoint, something interesting has occurred here: Climate change has made anticapitalist struggle, for the first time in history, a non-class-based issue.
It’s always interesting that people who have thrived under capitalism and use all its trappings want to take it away from Other People and future generations. Fong yammers on about “eco-apartheid”, those evil Rich people (people living in 3rd world sh*tholes in mud huts with no A/C, cars, electricity, or healthcare would call those living in government housing with TVs, electricity, healthcare, etc, rich), until we get to the notion that some Warmists want Intelligent!!!! people in charge. Au contraire, Fong writes
Put differently, the hope that we can empower intelligent people to positions where they can design the perfect set of regulations, or that we can rely on scientists to take the carbon out of the atmosphere and engineer sources of renewable energy, serves to cover over the simple fact that the work of saving the planet is political, not technical. We have a much better chance of making it past the 22nd century if environmental regulations are designed by a team of people with no formal education in a democratic socialist society than we do if they are made by a team of the most esteemed scientific luminaries in a capitalist society. The intelligence of the brightest people around is no match for the rampant stupidity of capitalism.
Taken altogether, Fong is arguing that dumb people (preferably kept that way by The State) should make the decisions. People who have been pretty much brainwashed by the Cult of Climastrology and their Progressive masters into making RightThink decisions. And hopefully doing away with capitalism in favor of a Statist system of economic control.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
