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13 October 2010

partisan rant so I've been listening to republicans on Bill Maher's show lately alright[More:]

man how defeatist about everything on the planet can you get? nothing can be done about anything cause it's already there and when you do want to do something about it, it's too expensive and we're broke so let's not do it. except the reason you're broke is cause nothing's being done and everything's too inefficient!

I just don't understand arguments like "X amount of people go to places in a car so let's not make alternative transport available cause they already do." Like.. the reason they go in a car is cause all the systems and choices laid out for them default to using the car. Subsidies. Reshaping of cities. Legacy industries. Advertising. Social convention. Blah blah blah. A century's worth of allathat. The reason things happen is because there is a structure in the world, an arbitrary social structure that makes them happen. That structure informs our individual choices however subconsciously so said choices don't exist in a vacuum. What this means is when you change structures and incentives and beliefs, then voila, behavior changes. How sad a worldview is it to not understand that?

This guy PJ O Rourke was on and he said something like "tell billions of Chinese that they can't have a Buick and 1.3 billion Indians they can't have a toaster oven." Are you bleeping kidding me man? Nobody wants your wack-ass Buicks. We want post-green-revolution farming techniques and post-gas-guzzling era cars. Indians like breathing too! Dumbass
P. J. O'Rourke is a total ninny. Don't mind him.
posted by Miko 13 October | 15:48
Wah, wah. Why try to change anything? Things were so good for us (white males and our heterosexual life partners) way back when. Change is bad, don't change things. We like remembering a time that never existed!

Call it pasturbation.
posted by Eideteker 13 October | 16:07
"pasturbation" hahahaha.
posted by Miko 13 October | 16:17
If you listen to people who are paid to spout fighting words about every aspect of a society, you'll think every aspect of that society is a battleground. Talk about structures informing individual choices; even people who perceive the truth launch it like a missile. What a waste.
posted by Hugh Janus 13 October | 16:38
very true Hugh. In fact beyond the fact that these people are talking heads and media personalities is just that I'm really beginning to be unimpressed by 'thinkers' or even personally thinking really hard about general concepts these days.

People who're just professional writers, thinkers, talkers even when they're very talented seem to bat really huge serious issues around and worry about it to no end while people in the field are actually getting things done despite their theories and in fact upstaging and re-informing those theories.

Like there are people in the field RIGHT NOW building new energy companies and re-jiggering methods of transport as public sector agents and they ain't gonna gain nothing by reading whatever David Brooks thinks about their work this morning. The writers and talkers are just gonna have to catch up once the work is done.
posted by Firas 13 October | 16:47
From what I hear, Buicks are actually a pretty big deal in China.
posted by argentcorvid 13 October | 17:03
argentcorvid, sure, but the Chinese aren't therefore blase about the environment like he's suggesting
posted by Firas 13 October | 17:06
One of the study results I have the hardest time getting my head around is the one that said conservatives tend to be happier and more optimistic than liberals. I never seem to hear/meet said conservatives, and I guess you don't either.

I also find it is best for my own happiness to keep up on the news, but ignore all talking head shows.
posted by bearwife 13 October | 18:46
"conservatives are twice as likely as liberals to say they're happy."

I think it has to do, in part with what they feel obligated to say. Reporting you're happy doesn't mean you are. It may simply mean that this is what you're taught to say when asked by strangers. It's a matter of politeness.
posted by Obscure Reference 13 October | 19:11
I guess the other thing is might just genuinely happy with the status quo and "we can't afford to change that, it'll always be like that" is just a last-ditch excuse (i.e. a mask for "I don't think this is problematic")
posted by Firas 13 October | 19:15
Don't some Chinese cities have the worst air pollution on Earth? Yeah, they're chasing the dream. Ignore the military tanks chasing them.
posted by oneswellfoop 13 October | 19:16
I also find it is best for my own happiness to keep up on the news, ...
I find the opposite - Google Alerts keep me up to date with all the news I want to see and the rest of it can fuck off. The last thing I need in my life is more bad news.
posted by dg 13 October | 22:10
dg, you saw the story on the rescue of the Chilean miners, right? If not, that will perk you up.

Another consistent happy news theme is the responsiveness of people to others in trouble. The money that pours in for victims of disasters, the heroic things people will do to help others in trouble. . .

It also makes me happy every time I read "President Obama," and"First Lady Michelle Obama."

The Nobel prize stories have all been interesting, and the peace prize story is inspiring.

It isn't all bad news. Really.
posted by bearwife 14 October | 11:56
SHOUTING THREAD OF INARTICULATE GOBBLEDYGOOK || Phil & Co sing "Tra La La" (from 1984)

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