It is belaboring the obvious to note that most Americans just want to go about their daily lives without being inconvenienced or bothered. We don't like it when traffic is heavy and delays us on our daily errands; I deliberately avoid Wasilla during rush hour, for instance, as during that time, it may take me an additional ten minutes to get through town. Torture! We don't like it when a traffic accident impedes us, we don't like it when a moose is standing in the road and won't move, and we don't like it when a mob of ranting climate scolds block the road and stage a sit-in. Especially the latter; the moose may be more amenable to reason.
But we may be seeing more of these annoying scolds. President-elect Trump (still not tired of that) will be taking the reins in a little over a month, and with his "drill, baby, drill" agenda on the table, it seems the climate protestors are planning to ramp things up.
Michael Mezzatesta, self-described “economics & climate educator … sharing ideas for a better future,” urges the fractured, losing climate movement to regroup and up the ante.
“A silver lining of this election result: US progressive resistance movements are about to get a big boost,” he posted on social media. “I predict that it will be a huge four years for progressive organizing and the labor movement, and I think it will be a MASSIVE four years for the climate movement.”
Color me skeptical. These nuts are always predicting a "HUGE" time for "progressive organizing," and they always seem to be HUGELY overestimating. But Messatesta has three organizations in mind that may be annoying us for the next four years — one in particular.
1. Sunrise Movement is a massive coalition of young people fighting to stop the climate crisis and win a green new deal. They have local chapters all around the country, and they are ready for a bunch of us to join. (I just joined their post-election call, and it was awesome.)
2. Working Families Party is organizing to create a check against the moneyed interests that run the Democratic and Republican parties. They train young, progressive, working class people to run for office and get elected. (Over a HUNDRED THOUSAND people joined their post-election call.)
3. Climate Defiance is a climate activist group that uses direct action to disrupt the lives of powerful politicians and leaders and force them to treat the climate crisis like the urgent problem it is. They are pretty militant, and there’s some risk involved in their tactics, but we need them now more than ever. And for what it’s worth, I’ve met them and they’re great people!
That last one, "Climate Defiance," seems the one that could end up being a real pain in the keister. "Direct Action" is a leftist code word for "screaming, throwing things, and blocking roads and sidewalks," not to mention protesting in front of people's homes and scaring the daylights out of their kids. (There's a reason they never try that crap here in the Valley or similar rural communities.)
But let's face it, this kind of nutballery doesn't help their cause, which is why, inconveniencing as this may be, we should look at that silver lining when these people are staging sit-ins on public roadways. They are nuts, and people don't pay too much attention to nuts; but when they impede us going about our daily affairs, then people start paying attention, and not in a way that favors the scolds.
One prominent climate scold, Michael Mann, is warning them off:
Regarding exaggeration, none other than climate alarmist Michael Mann, parting with Extinction Rebellion and with Scientist Rebellion (“performative attention whores”), warned:
hot takes, hyperbole, and polarizing commentary best generate clicks, shares, and retweets. I often encounter, especially on social media, individuals who are convinced that the latest extreme weather event is confirmation that the climate crisis is far worse than we thought…. increasingly today we see it with climate doomists…. This is not true, or at best partly true.
Not partly true is something of an understatement; most of their claims are pure corral litter, suitable only for enriching lawns. But it's the "direct action" that worries Mann:
Regarding extremism, Mann lamented
the damage done by deeply misguided individuals who in principle would seem to be on the side of climate action but are instead dividing the community and playing right into the agenda of the forces of inaction.
Behind every cloud, eh?
See Related: Vox Gets Almost Everything Wrong in Its Report on Measuring Cow 'Emissions'
BUSTED: UK Meteorology Office Invents Imaginary Temperature Stations to Claim Climate Change
With Donald Trump taking office on January 20th, and with "drill baby drill" being a key tenet of his second term, we can expect the Trump Derangement Syndrome of the "green" left to manifest itself in all sorts of overt craziness. People will be put off. People will be inconvenienced. People will be impeded from going about their daily affairs. But, should Donald Trump succeed in at least part of his energy agenda, gasoline prices will drop, as will prices for natural gas and home heating oil. That, not the climate screwballery, is what people are going to notice. That, not the anguished outcry from climate scolds, is what will impact people's everyday lives.
And that, with a bit of luck, is what voters will remember in 2026 and 2028.
Michael Mann is right about that much; these "direct action" nitwits will do their cause more harm than good. While we may not celebrate them for their interference with our lives, or their hysteria over "OMG MUH CLIMATE," we can at least celebrate them for being clueless, useful idiots — and damaging their own misguided cause.
