Thread by @BarbLarochelle

I deleted a post I wrote last night because it took off unexpectedly, and I was concerned that it might be too mean-spirited. This morning, I decided that I *do* want to say this:
Danielle Smith has a knack for making egregious, preposterous things sound reasonable. 1/6

Reasonable to the point that those that are inclined to believe the right wing, libertarian ideas/theories she espouses anyhow would certainly never think to fact check her, whether it is about Texas’s power grid, covid cures, Alberta being guaranteed access to tidewater...2/6

This morning on FB, one of my contacts (who has not yet been blocked *only* because we graduated from the same university, have mutual friends, and we’re distantly related) ‘wrote’ a post that was basically Smith’s column on Texas and renewable energy, nearly word for word. 3/

I don’t like fighting and arguing on FB, so I did not call him out on the plagiarism or the ridiculous ideas that can easily be proved to be nonsense (and dangerous). He’s a very conservative, die-hard UCP supporter who leads a very comfortable life. His post was instantly 4/

liked and applauded by like-minded fellow Calgarians, some of whom I also know (and who, again, are very well off, winter in the Bahamas, etc.) Sample comments: “Important reality check!” and “Bingo. Now ask yourself what they teach in classrooms.” 5/

These people are not unintelligent. But they also do not want to know what digging into Smith’s theories would very readily turn up, because her views help to perpetuate lifestyles like they have. 6/6

Update: someone did point out that it was Danielle Smith’s article, but then said that the ‘Green New Deal’ has nothing to do with the environment. 🙄