The Way Forward

Somehow, we need a shift so that red v. blue is focused primarily on economics. I don't know how we do it or I wouldn't be looking for ideas here. But I think we need to somehow get there. Others may not see it that way, but that's where I'm at. The billionaires are literally killing us, they are not afraid of us, they've got us split. If we could somehow work on that and descend on Washington with a national strike, perhaps that could move the needle.

Spot on with that. Allow me an opinion and it won't be a very popular one. The left populist part of Bernie's platform can get traction. Taking on billionaires, wealth inequality, healthcare, taking on the establishment and elites, labor issues, Social Security. All that resonates far beyond the Democratic Party and is something to work with. The progressive part of Bernie's platform will not get traction and is one of the reasons the Democratic Party lost the election. I've no doubt that Sanders and the progressives were in Biden's ear for four years in shaping progressive climate policy. It's true there was a shift from Neoliberalism but it's irrelevant because the result was worse.

Progressive environmentalism within a capitalist framework is a recipe for unyielding authoritarianism and austerity for labor, the working class, and the poor. A new New Deal could of got traction. A "Green New Deal" will not. Progressive environmentalism is, and always has been a movement of upper-middle class bloviators who can afford the repercussions of the policy prescriptions they preach. They can look very similar to the policy prescriptions of ecofascists. Climate science has become a religion that will tolerate no dissent or reason. Climate doom and fearmongering is not a bug. It's a well planned propaganda feature of the movement that has no basis in scientific reality. Whistleblowers within the movement abound that prove it. That's not climate denial. That's fact. Bernie and progressives are as guilty of that, as are Paul Ehrlich and his overpopulation disciples who bear resemblance to Malthus at his worst. Ehrlich was proven to be full of shit. As a labor leftist I've been dealing with this unadulterated overpopulation and climate doom bullshit for over two decades with no result. There is no "climate catastrophe" and no "sixth mass extinction" being caused by a couple hundred years of industrial civilization. Extinctions are assured. The nature of the universe is violent on an unimaginable scale. Planets and stars die every second of every day. People thinking they can step outside of and control nature is the true denial. A ten mile asteroid smashing this planet is catastrophic climate change. A few hundred years of industrial civilization not so much.

The environmental policies prescribed by the current Democratic Party are an unmitigated disaster that have caused rampant inflation and driven the costs of daily survival through the roof. The upper 10-20% can afford to withstand the pain. The rest of the population can't. All of it is about a lot more than the "price of eggs" that detached from reality Democrats have pulled out of their ass as a meme to disparage and marginalize anyone unhappy with the cost of daily survival, regardless of political affiliation.

There was a thread here a spell ago about how high gas prices and inflation would hurt the Democratic Party at the polls. All the usual preaching and attacks on anyone who dared question the "climate catastrophe" narrative and its result.

"Continuing to wish for cheap gas prices in order to win ignorant voters. Isn’t this a wonderful country?"

"People have options these days. Go electric. Stop making yourself a victim of big oil. Its not the 70s anymore despite what the propagandists tell you."

"Our gas prices are actually low compared with the rest of the world. What's really hurting us is the propaganda from hate radio and corporate owned TV."

----

Finally some "stupid and ignorant out of touch climate change denying traitor and deplorable" chimes in with this.

"Only the ignorant live paycheck to paycheck? I want cheap gas and groceries so my fucking family can eat. Then take the remaining and save up for that electric car I’m already supposed to have. Check your fucking privilege."

I know what side of the debate I'm on TBF. Strongly with the latter. Thanks for listening. Just throwing this out there. I'll ramble about the "woke issues" next. lol