You know, if these doomsday cultists would restrict their fearmongering to actual environmental issues, they’d have a point. Consumerism certainly causes damages. Disposable everything that ends up in landfills isn’t exactly the greatest, right? Smartphones are designed for you to get a new one every 1-3 years. They aren’t made to last like they used to. Today’s TVs are meant to be replaced every 4-5 years. I just too an old 30 inch square TV from 1988 to the recycling center, having replaced it with a small 1080p flat panel in the spare bedroom. The 30 inch TV actually still worked.
But, the cultists make everything about ‘climate change’
Our ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ Is Killing the Planet
As the coronavirus continues to spread, the chances that any one of us will be placed in quarantine goes up considerably. I know that being locked away like that would drive me nuts. Two weeks subtracted from my life! Still, I’d accept the justice of my confinement because I would recognize that my liberty had come to pose a real danger to my fellow humans.
Now, let’s ratchet up the sacrifice: Suppose you were required by law to turn the thermostat up to 75 in the summer, and down to 66 in the winter, in order to reduce your carbon footprint. The principle is the same: Your freedom to live as you wish turns out to jeopardize public well-being. I, for one, would bristle; I can’t stand being hot in summer. Maybe you wouldn’t mind. But what if you were also told that you had to eliminate most or all of the red meat from your diet? What if Greta Thunberg persuades President Sanders that we need to ration jet travel? At some point you’ll begin to think that the increasing globalization of bad things like climate change and infectious diseases is threatening liberal society.
Of course, that’s what the CoC wants: government telling you how to live your life, but unhappy when government tells themselves the same. Anyhow, writer James Traub talks about John Stuart Mills and the foundation of Classical Liberalism, vegetarian and vegans diets, about “The First Amendment doesn’t protect your right to eat steak”, and many other things, all warmups to get to the meat
Constant wasn’t thinking of Marie Antoinette’s right to play at shepherdess while her subjects starved, but the right to open a shop and build yourself a home rather than be drafted into Napoleon’s army spreading republicanism across the face of Europe. We moderns build institutions, and establish tacit norms, to guarantee the security of such private pleasures. That’s liberal individualism. But what do we do once we see that some of those choices threaten the health and lives of others? We will have to strike a new equilibrium between what society has the right to demand of us and what we have a right to retain for ourselves.
One is reminded of the old maxim “be careful what you wish for: you might get it.” Anyone thinking that giving government a bit more power won’t see government taking even more power is a fool.
The Dutch can reach consensus on painful social questions because they’ve spent the last thousand years working cooperatively to build dikes; the climate accord adopted last year came after a full year of discussion among representatives of all interest groups. That’s not how American democracy works, and especially so in recent years. We allow those interest groups to wage a pitched battle using all the money and influence they can muster against one another. Legislation emerges only after a war of attrition. That’s a very self-defeating way of doing business when all parties must be called on to sacrifice. At some point, presumably, things will get so bad that President Ocasio-Cortez
manages to ram a green-enough new deal through Congress. Then we’ll adjust our thermostats and go two-thirds vegan the same way we got used to the chaos and tedium of airport security check-ins: We’ll have no choice.
James seems rather taken by AOC and the Green New Deal. You can’t talk about freedom and choice in the same sentence as the GND, as it is all about Authoritarianism. But, then, that’s what the ‘climate change’ movement is about. Amazingly, after discussing Classical Liberalism and freedom, James fails to acknowledge how dangerous the movement is to freedom.
The Dutch can reach consensus on painful social questions because there aren’t very many of them and they all live under socialism so they’re used to doing what they’re told to do.
Here’s the text of the GND since The TEACH has no idea what it contains. What part is the capital ‘A’ Authoritarianism, TEACH?
One can make the argument that the GOP’s consolidation of power by aggressive voter suppression is Authoritarian.
Green New Deal
“Guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States.”
“Providing all people of the United States with – (i) high-quality health care; (ii) affordable, safe, and adequate housing; (iii) economic security; and (iv) access to clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food, and nature.”
“Providing resources, training, and high-quality education, including higher education, to all people of the United States.”
“Meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources.”
“Repairing and upgrading the infrastructure in the United States, including . . . by eliminating pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as much as technologically feasible.”
“Building or upgrading to energy-efficient, distributed, and ‘smart’ power grids, and working to ensure affordable access to electricity.”
“Upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification.”
“Overhauling transportation systems in the United States to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector as much as is technologically feasible, including through investment in – (i) zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and manufacturing; (ii) clean, affordable, and accessible public transportation; and (iii) high-speed rail.”
“Spurring massive growth in clean manufacturing in the United States and removing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and industry as much as is technologically feasible.”
“Working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the United States to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector as much as is technologically feasible.”
No, those are excerpts.
No mention of how this is done (a lot of taxes and penalties and government seizures, doubtless) or how much it costs (you’re the one who claims to be obsessed about spending (when you aren’t admitting it’s all a pose for political effect), so why didn’t you notice it?) which would be the guts of the bill.
Another “We have to pass it to see what’s in it”.
So, is this going to be like the last consensus, IdiotCare, where everybody is lied to?
And whose vote is being suppressed? Last I looked, the only votes being suppressed were pro-Bernie votes, and those were by the Demos.
Mentions of “how this is done” can be found on the campaign websites of the various Democratic candidates. Bernie Sanders’ is more specific than Joe Biden’s, and the now-out candidates were even more specific than that: they would all force you to change your lifestyle. From plug-in electric vehicles to reduced meat consumption to requirements for building construction, they would add restrictions to how you live and costs you have to bear.
Oh, they make it all sound glorious, claiming that it will create new jobs, well-paying union jobs, and all will be sweetness and light. But that won’t happen, because if politicians had the power to do that, it would already have been done.
This why one should prefer not having a politician as President:
On Obama’s watch, America had a net loss of 372,000 manufacturing jobs.
Under President Donald John Trump, America has had a net gain of 479,000 manufacturing jobs.
Do the math.
Lolgfy Jeffery
Evidence of “voter suppressionâ€, please. Good luck
Dems gotcho happiness right here…
https://tinyurl.com/rcnguuk
Lolgfy Jeffery
Teach, you’re not fooling anyone.
Lolgfy TEACH
You never have.
“Our Pursuit Of Happiness Is Killing The Planet”
Not a problem – Liberals counterbalance this by promoting misery and despair.
A negative of capitalism is the requirement for constant growth in a world with finite resources, requiring consumption and generating waste (including pollution).
Yet historically the positives of capitalism have far outweighed your negatives.
Learn some economics and history, little sissybitch.
Lolgfy Jeffery
Porter Good and his “lap”dog are little sissybitches.
Lolgfy Sibley
No, we don’t molest anyone.
Or beat our wives.
Prove that you don’t. We’ve read here that you do.
Is that why you talk about it all the time? Catharsis? Projection?
Is this your announcement that you’re a sissybitch like Teach and his lapdog, Fluffy?
Yes, because stagnation is so much better than growth. The next best thing to death.
As intellectuals go, you’re in a class with Stalin.
Well, with the population increasing, either you have growth, or you have declining lifestyles.
Recycling and efficiencies make sense, but forcing such things before the technology supports them does not work.
Prove that you don’t. We’ve read here that you do.
You’ve said we do. You must have proof. Or is it like Congress? You can’t prove a thing.
Is that why you talk about it all the time? Catharsis? Projection?
\
Is this your announcement that you’re a sissybitch like Teach and his lapdog, Fluffy?
Is that why you talk about it all the time? Catharsis? Projection?
Actually, I hardly ever mention it, so it must be guilty conscience on your part.
Is this your announcement that you’re a sissybitch like Teach and his lapdog, Fluffy?
Only one like that here is you, dear.
Must be a bad day at the troll farm, I mean Gropin’ Joe endorsing the re-election of Trump or is it because he just can’t remember Zippy’s name?