Is China in a 2T-ish era?

[Eric the Green]

(08-02-2022, 05:31 PM)JasonBlack Wrote:

(08-02-2022, 03:25 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Yes indeed, I agree, and from my side those problems are #1 climate breakdown, and #2 inequality, and #3 assaults on democracy and voting rights (including big money ownership of the process, and police abuse), and #4 gun massacres-- and not abuse of welfare programs.

And I might add that unless the rising power of tyranny abroad is not reversed, we may be fighting pig dictators like Putin and Xi Jinping too. And maybe a civil war against the Proud Boy types too.

The higher murder rate is a relatively recent phenomenon (like...well under a decade) in a much more stable downtrend, not a primary 4T crisis.

My thoughts on climate change are on the other end: people are simply not going to give a shit about climate change if they're poor. This is not an argument against dealing with climate change. It's not even an argument against levying heavier taxes on corporations who are the prime culprits (even Milton Friedman believed this was a good idea, as do many on the right). It's an argument against how it is being approached. Even the most impending and dramatic natural catastrophe will never be the first priority of someone contending with the risk of starvation or homelessness on a regular basis. That's just how Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs works. It's paramount that our main focus is on research and development, cost reduction and scalability. Unfortunately, climate change is a topic taken over by misanthropic luddites, rather than people who love their country and want to see it prosper in a sustainable manner.

Most importantly, regardless of who you think the "good guys" are, the 4Ts are overcome by leaders who are good at unifying, bringing people together and cooperating. Whether it's climate change activists, LGBT advocates, BLM supporters or the propagandistic, Hollywood-to-Washington state of the movie industry, Democrats have failed on all fronts. The vast majority of the population (everything from the various factions of the left, to libertarians, to moderate Republicans)...already agree with the basic ideas they're pushing. We shouldn't judge people by race, the police need to be reformed, we should leave gay people alone, women should have equality...but rather than working with any of these people, they insist on drilling down a continual purity spiral**, cannibalizing their own and pushing people over to the right.

**purity spiral: a situation in which members of an ideological group become increasingly zealous and intolerant, eventually turning on other members.

I dunno. It seems to me that if the center-left proposals that the Democrats have made during the Biden presidency, and which have been blocked only by the Republican filibuster upheld by 2 Democratic senators, or from reconciliation by one senator, is caving in to extremists, then anyone "pushed to the right" by these proposals was already well to the right anyway.

You can't compare the overall murder rate with gun massacres. These are innocent people mowed down by assault rifles which no-one has any business owning, and they are making the entire country unsafe. ONE death in such a massacre is too many. Human lives are not statistics.

I don't see that the need to regulate greenhouse gases and close coal plants is a luddite proposal. Regulation has been closed down by a reactionary Supreme Court in which the majority of the country has no confidence, and which was appointed by presidents and a congress not elected by majority vote. Of course we need research and development, but primarily we need the building of renewable energy, and shifting agricultural methods. I don't see how any of that is luddite. 

I don't see that carbon taxes on rich fossil fuel companies or paid-for subsidies to new clean energies would be a burden to the poor. I don't know how the needs of the poor are hurt by current climate change proposals. I don't see that the 48 real Democrats and Biden are not cooperating with each other, or caving in to extremists and luddites. Current proposals simply mean overcoming Republican intransigence and climate science denial and their protection of fossil fuel profits, which is all they do, and bypassing a few or even just one phony Democrat. The Republicans are the luddites, since they insist that fossil fuels continue to be the main energy source for the foreseeable future, and since they continue to deny the climate issue. 

And they are the ones who oppose more taxes on the wealthy, without which all our costs are just being passed on to everyone of all income levels in the future, and without which the poor receive no government assistance. It's hard to see how you are concerned with "the first priority of someone contending with the risk of starvation or homelessness on a regular basis" when you want to cut back on government services for them, paid for by taxes on those who can afford to pay them, including financial help and tax breaks for buying renewable energy. Just telling people to be masculine and self-reliant does not help them. Generally, the same politicians who favor help to the poor are the same ones who favor action on climate. And vice versa for those who don't. I don't know what you are talking about with your statement. If we had enough electric cars on the road, demand for more-expensive gasoline would decrease, and prices for it would come down.

The pared-down climate proposal that Manchin has just agreed to includes 60 billion focused on restoring and protecting underserved and impoverished communities from climate and pollution harm. Ecology and economy, and climate and poverty, are not disconnected. It is the poor who are hurt the most by the current and future climate breakdown. It is not the poor who vote against climate proposals, but the wealthy who support Republican policies to keep themselves from having to pay what they should be paying.