Pirate's Cove

Luke O’Neill seems pretty darned upset over this state of affairs, and even links this to the culture wars

How plastic straws became the latest victim in the US culture wars

Typically a young woman posting a photo of herself posing with a gun to social media wouldn’t be all that surprising in 2018 America. A show of political defiance, photos like these have become commonplace in the ongoing debate about gun control in the country. But in one such photo posted to Twitter this past weekend, it’s the accessory that went with the gun that stood out. Not a box of ammunition or a shooting target, but a drinking straw. Welcome to the latest front in America’s never ending culture war, where possession of a tool of mass refreshment is now a form of protest.

In the photo, posted by Alana Mastrangelo, a writer and political activist known for provocative Twitter stunts, she spelled out her intent.

https://twitter.com/ARmastrangelo/status/1023291321199542272

I think that’s a pretty on-point message. It’s we the people, not Government Dictates All. A few more tweets are highlighted, before we get to

“Conservatives Are Now Drinking From Plastic Straws to Own the Libs” noted New York Magazine’s The Cut this morning.

Like any such attempt to performatively spite liberals, turning the possession of straws into a subversive political action here is part goofy joke, part sincere expression of conviction, and part attempt to inflame the passions of the fishing-trip-avatar-dads who make up their audience, but most importantly a finger in the eye of the left.

The straw pride movement comes amid a flurry of fear-mongering from the news media on the right. This time it’s not Hillary and Obama coming to steal your guns, but the liberal boogeyman who doesn’t want you to enjoy an ice cold beverage.

Straw pride, baby, straw pride! O’Neill might be taking this a little to seriously.

Although, in fairness to the right, straw bans are in fact quickly taking shape around the country, including in multiple cities in California and Seattle among others, as well as at companies like Starbucks and Disney.

“It’s all a bunch of moral preening,” Mike Slater a commentator on Fox & Friends explained on Saturday, in a line of thinking typical among the right on the issue. “This idea that we are holier than thou … It’s not going to make any difference in the environment, but it does a wonderful job of making people feel better about themselves.”

Even Vox and others show that this is mostly moral preening which won’t make a real difference. O’Neill asks a good question before going moonbat

Regardless, any honest person might conclude that Perhaps we shouldn’t be producing so much waste? is a reasonable question to ask, but to be clear none of the critics of the straw ban actually care about the real environmental outcomes, they care that so-called liberal elites are telling them they can’t do something. In this case that would be true, as many, like Chelsea Clinton, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Tom Brady, among others, have joined the protest against single use straws.

Perhaps O’Neill should check the carbon footprints of conservatives vs liberals: ours tend to be lower. How much waste comes from Chelsea and Tom traveling all over in fossil fueled vehicles? And, maybe attend marches by both sides, and see which one cleans up and which one leaves a mess. Regardless, it might have been better had these governments run spreading awareness campaigns, asking people to use fewer straws, recycle when they do, and asking eateries and such to give out straws on request, rather than just a blanket ban.

Nothing angers the American right so much as trying to make their lives somewhat better. So the response here, wielding straws like some sort of contraband, is just the latest attempt to spite the liberals, or “own the libs” as its called in Twitter parlance.

Not sure how banning straws makes my life better. But, you know, Moonbat World.