The West’s Green delusions empowered Putin. While we banned plastic straws, Russia drilled and doubled nuclear energy production.
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Samizdata quote of the daySamizdata Illuminatus (Arkham, Massachusetts) · Economics, Business & Globalization · International affairs · Russia · Slogans & Quotations March 2nd, 2022 |
 9 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Yes indeed.
And just about the only Western leader who pointed this out was President Trump – who the media presented as the tool of Putin, when President Trump was the Western leader who was doing what Mr Putin did NOT want.
Mr Putin played the West like a fiddle – he ended up getting the weak leadership, and terrible policies, he wanted.
Green is the new stupid.
To the West:
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
The plastic straw ban was spectacularly idiotic. It was the result of a video being circulated of a turtle that was found with a straw stuck up its nose.
Paul,
I don’t think Putin is to blame for this. In an orgy of self-righteousness we did it to ourselves. The nuclear thing really gets my goat. Why? Because if I ever mention it to almost everyone I get Chernobyl chucked at me. I also get but you’re a physics graduate – nudge, nudge, wink, wink, jobs for the boys. I’m no shill for the nuclear industry. I haven’t had a brass ha’penny from them ever but I do have some understanding of how nuclear power works and if I didn’t that physics degree wouldn’t be worth the paper it was printed on. Of course try pointing out to people who wouldn’t know a neutron from an arsehole that pretty much all our energy is nuclear – fossil fuels, photovoltaics, wind etc is ultimately the result of nuclear reactions and you get blank looks. But the Sun is lovely so it can’t be nuclear because nuclear is evil. And fuck knows what is gonna power all those electric cars – nice thoughts I guess?
Yes NickM – as if the Chernobyl design was anything like Western designs.
We did do it to ourselves – but Mr Putin helped (for example his people pushed the “anti Fracking” campaign) – and the media branded the only Western Leader to stand up against the Greens (Donald John Trump) a “puppet of Putin” – when President Trump was doing the exact OPPOSITE of what Mr Putin wanted.
Nick M – I, too, am a physics graduate —nuclear physics. I won’t even discuss nuclear anything. I can’t even be properly heard, let alone win over hearts and minds. And you have described exactly what happens in such a discussion.
Shellenberger is excellent. He is not, as far as I know, a libertarian – he is more the kind of liberal that would have supported FDR and LBJ’s programmes, but at least he seems to have some semblance of practicality, a liking for his fellow Man and a dislike of the lunacy, narcissism and silliness of much of the Left. In today’s world, that makes him a contrarian. But many of his views would be unremarkable, even quite humdrum, in a world less crazy than today.
I finally got around to reading Shellenberger’s essay because of a link from Glenn Reynolds which includes a more extensive quote. Its subtitle is catchy, but a much better SQotD would be this, from the same essay: