This from the California Tourism Board.

[arewethereyet]

Blame is Brian's thing.

Too bad Simon Cowell doesn't have a show called "America's Got Blame".

Brian could win.

I agree with him that climate change is a problem, but the extent of the damage done by fossil fuels is directly tied to consumer demand - if people didn't want petrol, no one could sell petrol.

It seems a little disingenuous of him to fix the blame on people who provide fossil fuels while giving a pass to people who use fossil fuels. I can't really call it good environmental stewardship when he calls a cab to take him to get a remote so he can change the television channel.

Boru

To be fair...he only called a cab to get a battery for the remote, not a whole new remote.  

And you really couldn't expect him to walk to the damn TV or cable box and change the channel, he might have spilled his beer.

[Fireball]

I agree with him that climate change is a problem, but the extent of the damage done by fossil fuels is directly tied to consumer demand - if people didn't want petrol, no one could sell petrol.

It seems a little disingenuous of him to fix the blame on people who provide fossil fuels while giving a pass to people who use fossil fuels. I can't really call it good environmental stewardship when he calls a cab to take him to get a remote so he can change the television channel.

Boru

To be fair...he only called a cab to get a battery for the remote, not a whole new remote.  

And you really couldn't expect him to walk to the damn TV or cable box and change the channel, he might have spilled his beer.

...into the AC return register.

[Nay_Sayer]

Conversely the sale of Marshmellows, Chocolate bars and graham crackers has sky rocketed.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Conversely the sale of Marshmellows, Chocolate bars and graham crackers has sky rocketed.

A few years back we had visitors from Wales here in Missouri. The husband and his boy were from Wales but his wife was American. I discussed with her what the kid would find fun and their first night here we did S'mores. He was duly impressed. (13 yo if you're wondering.)

[Anomalocaris]

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that climate change doesn’t make wildfires worse. It’s plain that it does. I’m saying that the fossil fuel industry doesn’t exist in a vacuum. 

Boru

To reverse a collective self-destructive habit, it is often necessary to scapegoat the player most responsible for worsening the situation or most effective in resisting collective correction.

Justice, and promptness and effectiveness in reversing collective self destructiveness,  are often not only not the same thing, but demand mutually incompatible actions.

different societies at different times in history have different degrees of capability to undertake reasoned, informed collective action for the collective good.    some societies are more able to weigh the collective good heavily, and adapt their actions and outlooks to collectively achieve it.    others needs the impetus of a scapegoat or tangible enemy to even be pursuaded to try.

the right wing in the US has spent 60 years perversely painting any reasoned and informed collective action for the collective good as “socialism”, and vilifying any who would demand sacrifices of them to more of the others can partake in the collective good.   so it is now at a point where necessary collective action is difficult to initiate, to say nothing of being to fruition, without scapegoating.

brian may or may not be aware other people are responsible.  but vilianizing ans scapegoating a narrow range of industries that profited mightily from get us to the precipice of the abyss is probably necessary to preventing us from falling in.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that climate change doesn’t make wildfires worse. It’s plain that it does. I’m saying that the fossil fuel industry doesn’t exist in a vacuum. 

Boru

To reverse a collective self-destructive habit, it is often necessary to scapegoat the player most responsible for worsening the situation or most effective in resisting collective correction.

Justice, and promptness and effectiveness in reversing collective self destructiveness,  are often not only not the same thing, but demand mutually incompatible actions.

Or, instead of gibbering in the abstract, people could simply drive a little less.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

And they will all drive less because they heard YOUR evenhanded clarion call?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

And they will all drive less because they heard YOUR evenhanded clarion call?

Nope. Do you think they’ll drive less if we scapegoat Big Oil? People have been down on the petrocartels for decades, and crude oil demand always goes up, never down.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

yes.  if you associate an action with helping a tangible villain, they are much more likely to be persuaded to not do it in either public or private then if not doing it is portrayed as merely serving the good of the public that they have been indoctrinated over 60 years to care less and less about

---

The more Influence the right wing has on the outlook of a society, the stronger screwing a perceived enemy becomes as a motivator as compared to helping a friend or a fellow human being.   you can see this in the American society. The election of Trump and the steady support he receives are all glaring indicators of this. You are much more likely to get the necessary things done if you can portrayed it as screwing a perceived enemy then helping fellow men.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

yes.  if you associate an action with helping a tangible villain, they are much more likely to be persuaded to not do it in either public or private then if not doing it is portrayed as merely serving the good of the public that they have been indoctrinated over 60 years to care less and less about

---

The more right wing societies outlook, the more screwing a perceived enemy becomes a stronger motivator than helping a friend.

And 60 years of indoctrination is going to simply melt away via scapegoating? That’s pretty naive.

And the idea is to convince people that it’s in their own best interest, as opposed to damaging a perceived enemy.

Boru