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28 Oct, 7 tweets, 2 min read
How's the hearing with the oil execs going? Anyone live-tweeting it?
Hm, lots of people are! Probably the best way to see a cross section is to follow #SlipperySix.
One thing that doesn't surprise me in the least, which the hearing is making v. clear: the GOP is far more denialist, far more blind in its fealty to fossil fuels, than *oil executives themselves*.
Climate is just one area among many where the GOP can no longer reasonably be called "the party of business." Business interests see social change happening & are trying to adjust. The US right wing is doing the opposite: retrenching & doubling down on lies & delusion.
One does not simply tell Katie Porter that she doesn't understand a process.
One does not simply pretend not to understand environmental racism in front of Cori Bush.
[sip]

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More from @drvolts

David Roberts Profile picture
29 Oct
Random thread that's been on my mind for a while, about public health communication.

Lots has been said about how official authorities communicated/are communicating about Covid. I think it's pretty widely agreed that it's been a mess -- complicated, shifting, uncertain, etc.
IMO, the very most important thing in communicating health stuff to the public is *clarity*. Messages should be simple, easy to remember, easy to repeat. And to some extent, this should also be true of the public health response itself.
From the beginning, Covid communication was the opposite. Not only bad info, but excessively complicated info & excessively complicated recommendations: you're X% at risk if you're this age, in a room this size, with ventilation this good. Wear masks here but not here, etc.
Read 10 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
29 Oct
I would think the extraordinary success of the right-wing's fraudulent "CRT" hype -- and the absolutely pathetic, barely-there Dem response -- might draw people's attention to the vast asymmetry in the parties' ability to coordinate & push messages to voters.
I would think it might also draw attention to the futility of the Dem-consultant strategy of fleeing from culture war issues rather than fighting them.
The RW conjured a national movement of parents against CRT ***out of absolutely nothing***. The entire f'ing thing is invented. But it worked! Because the right has a giant propaganda machine. The left doesn't. All other talk about strategy is pointless as long as this is true.
Read 5 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
27 Oct
I read this piece by @hankdeanlight and, contra the headline, it's NOT obvious. I'm still baffled by Sinema. I get that she's nakedly ambitious & willing to abandon people & switch positions if she thinks it will get her ahead. What I still don't get ... politico.com/news/magazine/…
... is why she thinks what she is doing now is going to serve her career. She is destroying the very parts of the Dem plan that are *most supported across party lines*, for reasons she refuses to articulate. She's going to battle on behalf of rich people. That's not popular!
People are talking about her leaving the party & running as an independent, but why would anyone in the world think you can build a candidacy on "I successfully protected corporations & rich people from taxes"? I'm not seeing the savvy politics here.
Read 6 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
27 Oct
Today on Volts: a podcast discussion with journalist @amywestervelt about corporate disinformation, the men who developed the PR industry in the 20th century, & the many, many ways that industries like fossil fuels are still jerking us around. A fun one! volts.wtf/p/volts-podcas…
After you listen to the podcast, check out Amy's new project, Rigged, an utterly fascinating collection of original documents & stories about the birth, development, & ongoing health of the public relations (er, propaganda) industry.
rigged.ghost.io//
One bitter irony that becomes clear when you understand the scale of corporate PR: all the products & habits that right-wingers now cling to as authentic indicators of heartland culture (the fast food, the SUVs, the guns) were engineered for them by PR.
Read 5 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
26 Oct
"Local parents should control curriculum" sounds like a universal principle. But remember: reactionaries use such principles instrumentally, to achieve their proximate interests. If "local parents" started pushing progressive curricula, the principle would vanish like smoke.
I know I send variants of this tweet every day, but it's important. I see progs argue, "you say [universal principle X], but that implies [consequence Y]," as though reactionaries will be tricked by logic in to supporting something other than their immediate tribal interests.
If [universal principle X] supports immediate tribal advantage, they will proclaim it (& in some sense, *believe* it). But if X goes against immediate interests, they'll abandon it in a heartbeat in favor of some other principle (which they'll *also* believe in the moment).
Read 5 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
26 Oct
This is whiny, morally craven bullshit -- a very specifically *Republican* form of whiny, morally craven bullshit.
It is extremely characteristic of reactionaries, when faced with a collective problem, to *immediately* fear being taken advantage of.

Another approach might be: let's lead! Let's be heroes. This thing is going to hurt us all, so we're going to step up no matter what others do.
Thing is, you could show Manchin data about the investments China is making in clean tech. You could try to refute his point about unfairness empirically. But it's *not drawn from empirical evidence*. The reactionary's feeling of being treated unfairly is primary, pre-verbal.
Read 6 tweets

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