This is what I was told to do:
By Kavalier Posted in User Blogs — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
According to Thomas, I misappropriately used the boards and I should have posted this in my diary. He seems to think I was being spiteful, I assure all I was just being ignorant. So without further adieu, my first diary entry, moved over from the boards.
This is just to all the people who are telling me I am talking nonsense:
One word: MAYBE.
I am not zealously proclaiming "Humans are at fault". My only point is that there is a theory regarding global warming which involves something called "The Greenhouse Effect." This has not been proven true, but is rooted in very rational thinking. It might not be true, but it also might.
What I want to know, and have always wanted to know, from people who refuse to make adjustments in their lives is why not? We MIGHT be at fault, and there are very simple things we could do to help. They MIGHT NOT help, but so what.
From my own life: I bike to work every day instead of driving. If it turns out that this didn't help global warming, I still get some exercise and save a couple hundred dollars a year (thousand?) on gas. I also did a my part to help reduce the world's dependence on oil (something most agree is a good idea for many reasons), and helped keep the local air clear. So I might have helped global warming I might not have.
What I want to understand, is even knowing all of this stuff, what is it that makes people purchace gas guzzling Hummers and LARGE SUVs (I know some of the smaller models get very good mileage) that they don't need? Yes I know some people need these vehicles, and I respect that. But let's face it most people who own them have no need for these vehicles.
So I understand why there would be indignance regarding my "sky is falling" pronouncements (which I never made, but several folks attributed to me) but if we all agree conserving oil is:
a) good for local air quality
b) good for our wallet
c) probably good for the future of industrialized society (it's a nonrenewable resource and WILL run out someday, even if it's hundreds of years from now)
d) potentially good for our own bodies (if you bike or walk or whatever)
e) good for the economy (the less fuel we use, the lower gas prices, which effect prices on everything which effects buying... yadda yadda yadda, same argument as Bush's tax cuts essentially)
f) is just an added bonus: It MIGHT help slow down global warming.
g) another bonus: some of our oil money seems to go to support radical Islamic terrorism. Again we don't know for sure.
If we agree on all these things, what is it that leads you all to be so stubborn? To me it feels reactionary. You are so angry that I dare suggest personal sacrifice might be a good thing for the world that some of you take an extreme opposite reaction.
But unlike some of you (will go unnamed) I'm not going to put words in your mouth or attribute motivations. I would love to hear from someone who has a Hummer that is unnecessary for their business or family needs. Do you not agree with my points? What was the motivation to buy that thing? I honestly don't get it.
Several thousand people, saying over the course of the last four years, "We should all make adjustments to our lifestyle because it might help the environment" with the subtext "I hate all of you Republican fascist pigs with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns, to the point where I would cheerfully trade a sackful of puppies for one percentage point of Bush's approval rating" is another.
Have things really degraded that much?
Got it.
Yeah, I don't hate Republicans, which is why I'm on this board. Just some of the stuff you guys do. You're core values (self determinism/reliance) are mine as well. I just find some of the ways that plays out in policy... curious.
mk
According to Thomas, I misappropriately used the boards and I should have posted this in my diary. He seems to think I was being spiteful, I assure all I was just being ignorant.
Actually, that's not what I said, but whatever. Good first diary.
Either way, I like this diary thing. I think I'll stay off the boards. People seem to get a lot angrier there.
Thanks for your help Thomas, I'm sorry I misrepresented what you said.
mk
One person saying, one time, "We should all make adjustments to our lifestyle because it might help the environment", with the subtext "We should all make adjustments to our lifestyle because it might help the environment" is one thing (I will take a moment to agree that this is the subtext that you are using).
Several thousand people, saying over the course of the last four years, "We should all make adjustments to our lifestyle because it might help the environment" with the subtext "I hate all of you Republican fascist pigs with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns, to the point where I would cheerfully trade a sackful of puppies for one percentage point of Bush's approval rating" is another.
Every Rightie on this board - every Rightie - has had a bellyful of the latter.
An analogy for you: imagine someone with a sunburned shoulder and back; now imagine that they've put on a shirt covering it up; now imagine that you've just innocently greeted him or her with a hearty backslap. Surprising reaction, yes? - until somebody tells you why.