This is why I hate Fox News. I'm sure everyone there knows perfectly well that wind turbines played only a minor role in the recent Texas blackouts, but they don't care. Anyone watching their broadcasts will come away believing that the whole thing is the fault of woke environmentalists and the stupid green power that they somehow forced Texas to use.
That's millions of people who will believe this, and they'll pass it along to millions and millions more. Fact checkers will earnestly explain what really happened, but no one will hear them. Within a week or so it will be part of conservative legend that green power wrecked the Texas power grid and forced millions of people to freeze their asses off until fossil fuels came to the rescue.
So forget QAnon. There aren't that many true believers, and the few who exist don't have the brains or the organizational power to do very much harm. Fox News is just the opposite: they have both serious brainpower and a huge audience at their beck and call. They're the ones responsible for the election of Donald Trump, not a bunch of pathetic conspiracy theorists.
Again, again, again, as always -- and as comes freshly to mind today, in the memory of Mr. Limbaugh -- do not look at the storyteller(s). Always and only look at the audience.
Concur. Limbaugh, Fox and Trump are merely symptoms, sociopathic profiteers taking advantage of a large market. Without the market, they wouldn't exist.
Though as to Limbaugh and Fox, they at least had the brains to understand the concept of "induced demand," i.e., putting in place a feedback loop such that their product generates demand for more product. Trump is just a lazy parasite.
And as to the market, QAnon cultists are the highly visible tip of the iceberg. They're the kookiest and the loudest (and the most likely to get themselves arrested), but they're nowhere near the majority. However, the distinction is almost entirely a matter of degree, not of kind. They're all a bunch of grievance-obsessed, delusional tribalists, driven by emotion and belief, and generally impervious to facts or rationality.
The modern Republican party: delusional tribalists led by sociopathic profiteers.
You can push people over the edge, or you can try to pull them back.
I couldn't disagree more vehemently. That approach lets the rich, powerful, sophisticated (and evil) off the hook.
Vast number of ordinary people are naïve or ignorant or just plain stupid. That's true in every country. What's different is that those other countries (in the main) aren't powerless to implement regulatory empidemts to lying and spin, and that (again, in the main) they haven't given up their authority to insist on a modicum of objectivity in the delivery of news.
^impediments
(Jesus, could this comment software be any more primitive?)
In a great Chicago tradition, two thumbs up!
I should add: until recently I was very sympathetic to the "voters are just getting what they deserve" point of view. But on further reflection I've come to strongly believe this attitude is misguided.
Churchill famously said "The strongest argument against Democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
Sure, some voters (and consumers of news) are highly-informed policy wonks like the kind of people who frequent blogs (and write blogs) like this one. But not many. Some are indeed stupid. But for the most part they're too busy living life (soccer practice! work! shopping! binge-viewing!) to follow political and policy news with a great deal of attention. At least according to Churchill, it's been that way for a long, long time, and it's true in other countries, not just in the US.
So, somewhat reluctantly*, I've come to believe elite leadership matters a lot more than most of us acknowledge. I believe the principle difference between America and most other countries on this score is that our particular political and constitutional arrangements (Madisonian presidentialism) mean elite leadership matters even more in America than it does in other polities.
And unfortunately, US elites (at least those on the right) have largely ceased taking their own responsibilities seriously. Indeed, from what I can see they're not even aware they have responsibilities.
*In a highly technical sense it's true, of course, -- but trivially so -- that voters get what they deserve. But, as I've alluded to above, hoping for an informed, responsible electorate is about as frustrating as exercise in futility as one could imagine. And I write "reluctantly" because it would be nice, of course, to think that voters will save us. But that no longer seems realistic. The Greeks were right about this: elites matter.
A problem with elite leadership in the US is that Washington is a one industry town and there's nothing at all to temper it or keep them from ending up far up their own butts.
Washington & Los Angeles are out last companytowns.
I think that makes Mitch Mc Connell the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Meanwhile, here is a picture of some wind turbines humming along in Antarctica.
https://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp?med_id=68353
Nice!
In MN 18% of the electricity is wind generated. A lot of that happens in ND, where the turbines shut down at -20 degrees.
Two years ago in MN we had very cold weather (-28 degrees) that taxed our infrastructure. Many of us were asked to turn down the thermostats to 63, so that there would be enough natural gas in the system to keep all the furnaces going. Natural gas is also needed for backup electricity generation when the turbines aren't working.
It wasn't a big deal because our energy infrastructure isn't as dysfunctional as Texas.
It is a bizarre narrative coming out of TX. It's good to know no one is responsible for the mess, except maybe those greenies. Apparently solar is not hitting its summer max--but then again, it wasn't expected to hit at full output. Some wind turbines froze up--others overperformed. There was a report (on NPR?) that noted renewable energy overall was meeting expectations for the conditions. Fossil fuel production didn't meet expectations.
ERCOT epic fail? Can have that.
TX regulators in trouble? Never--not their responsibility.
Natural gas generation nightmare? Nada--must be something else.
^^^It is a bizarre narrative coming out of TX^^^
There's nothing the least bit bizarre about American hostility to prudent regulation coming back to bite us on the ass, nor about right wing politicians lying about such a state of affairs. It's not bizarre. It's banal.
What would be "bizarre" would be Texas voters finally saying "enough is enough" and throwing the bums out of office en masse at the next opportunity. Here's to hoping...
touche
😉
Governor Abbot is claiming Texas' largely unregulated grid is the very model of efficiency, except for those costal greenies who took advantage of the lack of regulations to force Texas to build all those wind turbines.
Meanwhile, at the Fox web site the biggest news of the day is the death of Rush Limbaugh, “The Greatest of All Time. Texas is just a small story on their front page which is almost exclusively the greatness of Rush.
Well admittedly the power outage in Texas really only matters strongly to Texans... and without power they can’t watch Fox News. So since nobody else will be affected by the power outage except those guaranteed to not be watching, it makes sense why eyeballs-and-the-revenue-they-generate-obsessed Fox News wouldn’t bother covering it much.
Both QAnon and Fox News (and others) require people who are ready to believe just about anything bad about their partisan opponents - or people of other races or religions. Without this hyperpartisanship people do have some skepticism and willingness to see more than one point of view. Now, their group identity requires them to believe anything put out by the cult leader or the party "news" outlets. Fox has been a major contributor to this state of mind, but remember that it really started with the deliberate decision of Republican politicians, such as Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan and Gingrich to use racism to get votes from low-income whites. Without the dedicated outlets these politicians were getting their message out very well (although right-wing radio started before Fox). And again, Trump was opposed at first by Fox. Fox probably exploits the partisanship as much as it generates it.
“ it really started with the deliberate decision of Republican politicians, such as Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan and Gingrich to use racism to get votes from low-income whites. ”
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Four bags full;
Sez the black sheep
First comment on KD's new blog.
I live in the Dallas area and just spent three days mostly without power. Got below 40 one day in house. Luckily we have a gas fireplace, so that part of the house stayed somewhat warm. Had a frozen pipe on each side of the house. No WiFi for days. Strangely, the cell network was overloaded so no internet access on phones. Texts went through some time. A dark, cold house with no internet is no fun. I read a book with a flashlight by the fireplace. Anyhow, power has come back on now and it's warm, maybe it will stay on.
As far as I can tell it's all because many power plants weren't winterized enough. Systems failed, backup generators wouldn't start, fuel management broke down, and so on. A huge amount of capacity went offline.
Yes, the criticism against wind power is likely nonsense, or a minor factor, since it's a small part of grid power in the winter. Texas does have a free market leaning approach to generating power. But there are still regulations. Surely in hindsight some tighter regulations on winterizing equipment were needed. Who's to blame? I think when the dust settles it will be ERCOT who manages it all. I mean, isn't it conceivable Texas could have a week near 0 degrees F?
Perhaps ERCOT requested new regulations for winterizing equipment, and legislators ignored them. But if so, I have not heard of this so far. I expect some people to get fired at ERCOT.
“ I mean, isn't it conceivable Texas could have a week near 0 degrees F?”
Not if money is the priority.
This is the Jerryworld Super Bowl, February 2011, turned up to 11.
Yes, it was the lack of winterization that was the problem, for both the fossil-fired and the renewable generation systems. And both can be winterized, if the plant owners spend the money.
I'm not too clear on ERCOT's scope. Do they actually have the authority to require the suppliers and distribution systems to upgrade their systems? Given the blame they are being subjected to, it appears that Texans think so.
“ it really started with the deliberate decision of Republican politicians, such as Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan and Gingrich to use racism to get votes from low-income whites. ”
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Four bags full;
Sez the black sheep
Dang it. The system sent my reply to the wrong spot.
I had that happen to me earlier too. I got an error when I first tried posting--so I posted it again and...it double posted, as a reply (intended) and a new post (not intended).
Abbott and Perry ... it's on them..check the tape