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And that’s basically it!
Of all the Republican insanity, climate denial is the biggest head scratcher for me. It's denying cause and effect. And they need a planet to live on too.
they benefit too much from fossil fuels
Cool. They'll be taking it with them to the grave.
And us with it, but they don’t care because “they got theirs”
imagine a worldview where the most important thing is people respecting you as a man. Rugged jobs like coal mining or oil rig work. Driving heavy duty, loud, smoke spewing trucks or muscle cars. Eating the largest, most expensive meat, to fuel your very important muscles. Proving your worth through hard work instead of smarts. Throw in the gay rights movement, and now trans rights, now they feel like masculinity itself is being threatened. They want to keep eating steaks, they like driving their big truck, they dont want to respect non-masculine peers who dont work as hard as they do. I give you the driving force of rural America, and the wealthy people tapping into it.
I don't disagree per se...but I think the climate change denial has more to do with being anti-democrat/liberal than being a man. Conservative women are also climate change deniers.
Like if you were to ask them if the earth is worth protecting, recycling, blah blah blah, they'd say yes. But as soon as you mention global warming, they say it's woke.
Plus, remediation ought to check all their boxes
— huge business opportunities
— new jobs
— energy independence
— reducing our dependency on Chinese companies
But none of those things are important to Republicans. That's just stuff they say.
Consider Elon Musk. Really. Yeah, he made his first fortune in software, but responding to climate change was what made him one of the wealthiest people in the world. Don’t Conservative worship such rich people? We’re (finally) starting a major transformation in our economy and there is opportunity for other such fortunes to be made. This is Taylor made for Republicans
That’s what I don’t understand, either. Even if they were a totally cynical asshole about it, a Republican should love the idea of getting rich by fleecing progressive “idiots”.
Hell, I’ve imagined designing Trump hats, shirts, and bumper stickers just to make money off his popularity, and then donating to a cause or charity Republicans despise.
It may have the worst ultimate consequences of much of the Republican insanity, but unfortunately I don’t think it’s confusing at all.
Do something for the good of the entire world, or to put some money in the pockets of people who already have more than they can ever spend? Easy choice.
Oh, the entire world can see that we made the bad choice on #1? Sooooo… guess what guys the bad consequences don’t actually exist! :D
And it goes well with a general distrust of highly educated individuals. That is used to dismiss many other facts that they disagree with.
One of the worst parts of them. Among all the other worst parts, naturally.
Their donors are mostly old, rich people. So they don’t care about what happens more than about 10-15 years in the future.
Really sick of my taxes going to these dumb hick states. Texans want to be independent? Ok cool then cut off all federal funding for a year and let's see how that goes for them. Oh yeah how's that independent power grid working out? Oh it killed a bunch of people then you made no changes at all? Clearly the answer is to stop teaching about climate change. Fucking idiots.
You act like the entire state wants the world to burn when it's just a subset that consistently votes. I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of Texans don't want independence, and Texas isn't among the worst states in terms of reliance on the federal government.
It's more than just voter turnout. The deck is stacked. Like many red states, most of the blue voters in Texas are gerrymandered into a small handful of districts. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%27s_35th_congressional_district for an example.
Plus, ballots are being thrown out in Harris County + strict mail-in voting.
On the topic of gerrymandering, it's important to note that a chunk of blue states do it too. It sucks that most of the country can't get fair representation in their elections.
Can't gerrymander senate elections or elections for governor of the state.
Are these supposed blue Texans in the room with us right now?
Florida here, and I'm sick of this horseshit. FFS, we voted Obama TWICE. We're very close to purple. Just because our Govenor is an ass, I gotta eat shit on the internet all day long.
This kind of feels like saying, "Not all cops are bad, some just turn a blind eye when the others behave badly...." like that isn't a big part of the problem.
Yes, and leaving out nuance will lead to dumb blanket solutions like "defunding the police" instead of careful police, justice, and social reform. It isn't surprising to me that phrases like "ACAB" alienate families with people who've honorably served in our military/police force/other first-responder positions.
First, mixing disparate groups like police and firefighters/paramedics and to a lesser degree military (who aren't first responder except by the greatest stretch of the imagination) is disingenuous because as a general rule people don't have a bad opinion of them. Even for the military, "Thank you for your service" has gotten to the point of cliche rather than sarcasm.
Second, police idly standing by or actively helping to cover up or protect bad actors from the consequences of their wrongdoings is a key part of the problem. The police unions don't do the shitty things they do because the majority of police voted against them. And after half a century of increasingly bad behavior (or better reporting on their bad behavior) it's no surprise that people move towards phrases like ACAB and "defund the police". They're just sick of their pets and young children getting shot for existing in the presence of police.
Now, if we want to talk about nuance, perhaps you shouldn't have made the incredibly general statement of "Well, it's not like the whole state agrees with this, just the ones who vote" and instead explained why it's so hard for people to vote, such as voting districts with fewer polling stations than the average, no statutory paid day off for voting, restricted operating hours for polling stations, and it being illegal to give water to people who are waiting in line (often for hours). That would be nuance.
First, mixing disparate groups like police and firefighters/paramedics and to a lesser degree military (who aren't first responder except by the greatest stretch of the imagination) is disingenuous because as a general rule people don't have a bad opinion of them. Even for the military, "Thank you for your service" has gotten to the point of cliche rather than sarcasm.
This very much is true, but I'm viewing this issue from the lens that we will need support from the good apples within the bunch to root out corruption. I honestly don't know what the best solutions are for dealing with these issues are, but it seems unlikely that we can dismantle and reassemble every police department in this country, so it seems like decent change must come from within these police departments.
Second, police idly standing by or actively helping to cover up or protect bad actors from the consequences of their wrongdoings is a key part of the problem. The police unions don't do the shitty things they do because the majority of police voted against them. And after half a century of increasingly bad behavior (or better reporting on their bad behavior) it's no surprise that people move towards phrases like ACAB and "defund the police". They're just sick of their pets and young children getting shot for existing in the presence of police.
This is fair. However, I personally think that better messaging would get more cops to do the right thing and punish bad actors. Even if it doesn't influence cops, I think it would influence politicians more effectively since it will inherently be a less political issue.
Now, if we want to talk about nuance, perhaps you shouldn't have made the incredibly general statement of "Well, it's not like the whole state agrees with this, just the ones who vote" and instead explained why it's so hard for people to vote, such as voting districts with fewer polling stations than the average, no statutory paid day off for voting, restricted operating hours for polling stations, and it being illegal to give water to people who are waiting in line (often for hours). That would be nuance.
This is a fair point. I did end up doing so slightly when another person replied to my comment. However, I don't think the person I replied to cares about any nuance because their first instinct was to resort to hatred without asking questions. They also complain about how voters are doing nothing about our power situation when the article that is literally linked by OP mentions how we passed a measure that creates a new statewide energy fund.
Oh yeah how’s that independent power grid working out?
Ironically enough, its been a huge boon for renewable energy providers. ERCOT auction rates effectively subsidize green producers at fossil fuel prices, so when the gas cartels squeeze the price up to $5000 MwH, all the wind and solar providers (which can flood the grid with energy to the point that they risk operating at a loss) pick up a massive ahem windfall on those last few MwHs sold.
Because building these facilities is so cheap and running them is basically free, the Texas Gulf Coast and the Midland area have been filling up with enormous green energy facilities to capitalize on these fossil-fuel cartel induced price spikes.
Does that mean they're going to shoot the text books?
How is it that Texas gets to define our textbooks again? Cali has more people. Shouldn't they have the bigger market?
Texas has a looser curriculum. It is easier for Texan school books to get sold to other states than California
I think its also heavily regionalized.
So California tends to set the standard for the Pacific Coast / Mountain West. Texas book suppliers are heavily influential in Gulf Coast and Mississippi value school system. Florida and Virginia heavily impact the Atlantic Coast. New York and Massachusetts weight the NE corridor.
I also know there's a not-insignificant amount of education that is Texas-specific. There's a state requirement for middle schools to teach Texas History, as distinct from US or World History, for instance. And Texas science textbooks got caught up in the big fight over teaching evolution and sex ed, back in the 90s. So there's a real bright line between what a biology, chemistry, and human health book will teach in the mid-00s, entirely dependent on which side of the Rockies you went to school.
“Everyone, the anti-trans attacks didn’t work out for Virginia. Get out the dart board, let’s try this again.”
Texas sucks. Spread the word.
That’s not news they’ve been doing it since a Texan was president