I’m gonna half-agree with this. I agree that we shouldn’t in general as a community align with (or against) social justice causes, at least not in America.
I think there are many issues where taking a partisan view is still a good idea, though. I think we should align with the left on climate change, for example.
I think we should align with the left on climate change, for example.
re: climate change, it would be really nice if we could persuade the political right (and left) that climate change is apolitical and that it is just a generally sensible thing to tackle it, like building roads is apolitical and just generally sensible.
Technology is on our side here: electric cars are going mainsteam, wind and solar are getting better. I believe that we have now entered a regime where climate change will fix itself as humanity naturally switches over to clean energy, and the best thing that politics can do is get out of the way.
In an ideal world, it would be apolitical, but that’s not the world we live in. Actually, the same is true about building roads—investments in infrastructure is a liberal cause. Consider how Obama proposed a massive investment in infrastructure, which Republicans rejected. When Trump proposed investing in infrastructure, Democrats implied this was one of the only areas where they would go along with him, but then other Republicans were against it and pressured him to change course on this.
I think we can push issues towards being less political by reframing them and persuading others to reframe them.
Abortion, gun control, tax rate—these issues are so central to the left-right political divide that they will never be depoliticized.
Climate change is not like them IMO. I think it can be pushed away from the political left-right axis if it can be reframed so that doing something about climate change is no longer seen as supporting left-wing ideas about big government. There is an angle about efficiency, fairness & cutting red tape (carbon tax) and another angle about innovation and industry (e.g. Tesla). I think we should be pushing those very hard.
I’m gonna half-agree with this. I agree that we shouldn’t in general as a community align with (or against) social justice causes, at least not in America.
I think there are many issues where taking a partisan view is still a good idea, though. I think we should align with the left on climate change, for example.
re: climate change, it would be really nice if we could persuade the political right (and left) that climate change is apolitical and that it is just a generally sensible thing to tackle it, like building roads is apolitical and just generally sensible.
Technology is on our side here: electric cars are going mainsteam, wind and solar are getting better. I believe that we have now entered a regime where climate change will fix itself as humanity naturally switches over to clean energy, and the best thing that politics can do is get out of the way.
In an ideal world, it would be apolitical, but that’s not the world we live in. Actually, the same is true about building roads—investments in infrastructure is a liberal cause. Consider how Obama proposed a massive investment in infrastructure, which Republicans rejected. When Trump proposed investing in infrastructure, Democrats implied this was one of the only areas where they would go along with him, but then other Republicans were against it and pressured him to change course on this.
I think we can push issues towards being less political by reframing them and persuading others to reframe them.
Abortion, gun control, tax rate—these issues are so central to the left-right political divide that they will never be depoliticized.
Climate change is not like them IMO. I think it can be pushed away from the political left-right axis if it can be reframed so that doing something about climate change is no longer seen as supporting left-wing ideas about big government. There is an angle about efficiency, fairness & cutting red tape (carbon tax) and another angle about innovation and industry (e.g. Tesla). I think we should be pushing those very hard.