Thread by @sunnshiiny

Refusing to accept that a significant portion of the electorate is resistant to change FF dependence is the far left’s problem.

Democracies work because of compromise and cooperation.

Autocracies dictate change, regardless of where the electorate is in the change process.

https://twitter.com/sunnshiiny/status/1152277607473225728

Advocating for immediate change to climate targets, because it is an “emergency,” is applying political pressure to the issue.

Now try to reverse the situation. The angst and fear you have over climate change is the same level of fear the workers are having ...

... about losing their lucrative jobs and having to accept far less pay and a different lifestyle for themselves & their families.

These people have been continuously cajoled by Con politicians who stand to benefit from misguided rage and fear, by way of votes, ...

... political pressure and violence, if necessary.

But are they really misguided? There are assurances from the FF industry itself that jobs are on the line. Through AI & recent technological advances, these workers have become redundant and surplus to industry need.

Industry producers can make more money with technology than by employing workers for field services. Creating a surplus in workers and higher unemployment.

But why take the blame for automatization when they can blame those holding industry back from tripling profits?

Amplified by con politicians & think tanks, clever manipulation of the narrative & disinformation has focussed workers’ & investors’ anger at what is sold as a climate “hoax” rather than on the architects of the end of oil industry jobs during the long sunsetting of oil.

To replace these jobs, the industry would have to increase production prolifically to re-employ all workers. Significant efforts are being made by politicians like Kenney, Moe, Ford, Scheer to do just that. It’s the only way they can re-employ all the surplus field services.

Scheer’s climate plan doesn’t call for a reduction in GHG. It calls for portions of the profits to be put towards technological advancements. And CEO’s of industry production are bemoaning the approval of BillC69, though they have increased profits, since dumping workers for AI.

I realize the actions of FF workers has gone beyond the pale, but their livelihoods & lifestyles really are on the line. I would be scared too if I’d never be able to reach the top level of salary I made and had to make severe cutbacks affecting my children & their opportunities.

Most of the people who chose field services as a career or built a local small business around delivering field services are the ones hurting right now. It does not look like their services will be required unless oil production goes into overdrive.

Where is a 35-55 year old going to make over $200K with a limited education? No where. That’s the reality these workers face.

You may have no empathy for them, but you should. They’ve been used as pawns in the industry producers struggle to stay at the top of the pecking order.

Workers were overpaid to ensure loyalty & to induce rage & fear when that salary was threatened. A built in industry lobby group, reading to defend the industry violently, as demonstrated by the violent effigies and mounting death threats towards Trudeau & McKenna.

The left has limited empathy for the plight of industry workers. Retrofitting buildings to be green would be steady work, but compensated poorly. We don’t have the resources to compensate unemployed workers at FF industry wages. And what about the small business owners?

What were lucrative businesses 10 years ago, are now barely surviving or gone bankrupt and bought up by foreign owners for pennies on the dollar.

These are the people we are fighting to get climate action implemented. Along with Con politicians and the industry itself.

Recognizing your life is no more or less valuable than the victims of industry automatization is the first step. Turn the narrative around to focus on industry responsibility & how workers and small businesses deserve transition opportunities, retraining & perhaps a buyout.

We are all on the same side fighting for survival. We can demand industry assists workers to make the transition to green jobs.

Since industry knew about climate change, long before the public, they are responsible for the crisis in the first place. They put us all in peril.

Industry will fight having to pay. It will mean losing control of global politics. It will mean reduced profits and angry shareholders and investors. No different than we have now.

But it will also mean reframing workers as fellow victims, whose lives matter as much as our own.

Right now we have progressives battling people who work in Fossil Fuel industry. It’s not their fault. They didn’t cause climate change. They performed labour for compensation and were told climate change was a hoax or an unknown cause.

It serves no one’s purpose but the FF industry, to continue the blame game. It keeps the electorate divided.

Somehow, we must turn the responsibility for this crisis and worker abuse by industry around, before real climate action will be achieved.

Otherwise we are headed for civil war. Many struggling working class people are ready to take up arms, clinging to hope brought by threats of separation. Con politicians constantly feed and foment rage & fear, by alluding to violent and drastic solutions.

Kenney’s rhetoric has surpassed irrationality & obstruction & is dangerously approaching sedition. His level of gaslighting is unprecedented, resembling a cult or religious zealotry.

That comparison is purposeful. Kenney, Scheer, Harper, & many Cons are Dominionist Christians.

In Canada, Kenney is the cult leader. He’s drowned out Opposition & dissent. But he can not drown out compassion and empathy for fellow victims from humanists.

Take control of the narrative.

It’s the industry that is responsible. Industry should take responsibility.