this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 253 points 6 months ago (13 children)

"Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman accused President Biden of being “willing to sacrifice the American auto industry and its workers in service of its radical green agenda."

I mean we could try and transition workers from a more negative industry type to a positive one...but that seems like a lot of work and less profitable, so never mind.

[–] [email protected] 142 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (12 children)

What the actual fuck is wrong with Republican politicians? I mean, I already know what's wrong with Republican voters - brainwashing by years of Fox "News" - but the politicians? Are they all literal sociopaths?

[–] [email protected] 106 points 6 months ago

No, they're just doing what they're being paid to do by special interest groups aka big business. It's not a bug and it's not a feature; it's the point. Optimal profits this quarter. Every quarter is a new quasi generation of executives who want a good quarter before moving on after x quarters.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 6 months ago (3 children)

The philosophy behind conservativism is to stay still. Conserve the status. Do not progress.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 months ago (3 children)

But you're describing a standard Dem. Repubs are actively trying to drag us backwards. They are regressives.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago (4 children)

That's a popular misconception. The philosophy behind conservatism is to perpetuate hierarchy. The ideology was developed by literal monarchists, and when the "divine right" excuse became untenable they moved on to others like racism and capitalism, but the goal remained the same. It only seems like they want to maintain the status quo because the historical status quo was hierarchical, but rest assured: if society were magically egalitarian instead, conservatives would vigorously try to make sweeping, wholesale changes to create a hierarchy from scratch.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

Nothing. They're behaving quite rationally.

You just have to understand that their motivation is not "successful governing" or "making the world better" but rather, "getting more money."

When you view their actions through the lens of self-enrichment, they're behaving quite normally.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 6 months ago (7 children)

The American auto industry could also produce EVs, if it so chose. Nobody has to lose their jobs.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 6 months ago (7 children)

As an American auto worker, I like our move to EVs and the jobs at the massive new factories we built. But I guess wanting blue collar workers learning new skills and technologies makes me a gay communist.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 6 months ago (3 children)

There's also nothing stopping the big three from making EVs.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago

And making more than the minimum the government requires them to make for quota. Demand is even there now, so there's no excuse other than the bottom line, plus a bit of cooperation with the oil companies.

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[–] [email protected] 219 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Jesus, what a stupid fucking hill to die on. Republicans never cease to amaze and appall.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 6 months ago

If only they actually would die on that hill. They won't, because they've conditioned their base to support them no matter what. Instead, they'll rot the hill and move on to the next once the one they're on can't be salvaged.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (35 children)

Yeah, I don't get it. I understand wanting to reduce or eliminate subsidies (they're just a cash handout to dealers and manufacturers imo), but there's no logical reason to be against EVs.

Here's my proposal: allow tax credits for private sales. Perhaps add some requirements to certify that the seller owned the car more than a year or something to qualify to prevent flipping.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago

they're just a cash handout to dealers and manufacturers imo

The US government subsidized $750B for the oil industry in 2022. The EV tax credit amount to peanuts compared to that. If you want a green energy and green transportation industry in the US, subsidies are absolutely necessary.

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[–] [email protected] 148 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (21 children)

Are we in a "free market" or we not? The answer is "depends on what lobbyists want."

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

Free market goes to the highest bidder.

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[–] [email protected] 108 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It’s too late. We’ve already hit the tipping point. Many of my neighbors have EVs now. They’re everywhere in my city and I’m not in a major city. They’re just plain better cars and now people know it. It’s too late.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 6 months ago (8 children)

Never underestimate the Republican ability to turn things into a culture war. My very conservative neighbor has an F-150 Lightning that his work provides him. When he first got it, he loved it and drove it everywhere. He truly seemed to believe that EVs were a better way to drive.

Then a few months ago he started making comments from the Fox News bubble. Things like, "the power grid just can't support all these EVS" and "these EVs are so heavy that they're destroying our roads" (note he has one child, and he bought his wife a 5,800 lb Yukon, so don't tell me he honestly cares about vehicle weight).

Recently he bought a new ICE vehicle (a Bronco). I truly believe that he was this close to accepting that EVs have many advantages over ICE vehicles, but then he consumed enough right wing news to prevent him from making the switch long term.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

Conservative brain rot. Seen it many times.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

Many decades ago, the US decimated parts of cities and a lot of railway infrastructure to make way for cars. It’s never too late to ruin something

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 6 months ago (13 children)

Congratulations, Elon. This is who you hitched your ugly Cybertruck wagon to.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 6 months ago (8 children)

All that we want to do is see to it that we live another 100 years is that so god damn polarizing?!?!

[–] [email protected] 53 points 6 months ago (1 children)

But what if global warming is a hoax and we improve things for no reason?! /s

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 6 months ago (2 children)

This is why I can't be friends with conservatives of any degree. People always want to say "it's just politics," but it has gone beyond that for so fucking long that it's not even a discussion I'm willing to have anymore.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Agreed. Conservatives bring politics into every aspect of their life. You can't have more than a few moments without them making some culture war comment.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago

And they expect you to hold their beliefs or stay silent. If you express a contrary opinion, you are the one bringing politics into the discussion. It's like playing chess with a pigeon.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

And by doing so, they force the rest of us to bring politics everywhere, or risk having everything that cooperative society has worked for undone. It's really tiring to have the be eternally vigilant for bullshit that shouldn't even be seriously considered.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 6 months ago (6 children)

In a statement, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman accused President Biden of being “willing to sacrifice the American auto industry and its workers in service of its radical green agenda.”

If you look up the 10 most "Made in America" cars, the top 4 slots by a huge margin are Tesla Model 3,Y,S,X , which are all EVs, and they are at near 100% (or 100% for some models). There isn't another American car brand on the list. So when Coleman is talking about sacrificing American auto workers, who's he talking about? A car that is 40% American because all the parts are made in China or Mexico and there's some final assembly done in the USA?

P.S. Musk is an idiot, though I'm not sure that needs to be said anymore as its so obvious.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 6 months ago (16 children)

What’s the plan if we run out of oil? I mean seriously, it’s gonna happen eventually. Even if you want to ignore the science on climate change, you can’t ignore basic laws of the universe that oil is a finite resource. If we don’t have a plan for when it runs out, there will be utter chaos.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

There's not going to be a moment when the world suddenly goes from having oil to having no oil. Some oil reserves are relatively cheap and easy to extract. Other, very large reserves are currently so difficult and expensive to extract that doing so isn't profitable. As the easy oil gradually runs out, the supply drops, the price rises, and sources of oil that were not profitable at the old price become profitable. This maintains the supply of oil and stabilizes the price.

Eventually oil will become so expensive that alternative technologies will be cheaper than it. This will happen with plenty of hard-to-reach oil left. So it's true that the amount of oil is in principle finite, but that limitation isn't really relevant.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 6 months ago (22 children)

So there are politicans who really believe that climate change is a conspiracy? Or they just don't care for the future?

[–] [email protected] 62 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Remaining rich depends on them not believing climate change

[–] [email protected] 37 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

There's an enormous amount of money in renewable energy and battery manufacturing. That's why Texas leads the nation in wind farm power and Atlanta, Georgia is getting a $4.3B investment at its Hyundai electric vehicle plant.

But there's also a ton of legacy infrastructure that generates enormous revenue streams. If you've just invested billions into our rapidly expanding oil pipeline network

You're not going to want us to give up on mineral extraction across the American northwest or central plains.

This is a real clash of industries.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago

They're bought by the oil industry

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 6 months ago (12 children)

Inb4 "both parties are the same".

While I hate stuff like these rollbacks, we are already starting to see EVs save people money on gas and service, and they are stupidly fast compared to ICE counterparts. That's something Americans of all stripes can get behind.

Once I tried an ebike, I realized I never wanted to go back to gas engines. So fast, so much torque, and pennies to charge vs $70 gas tanks at Costco (even more at a normal gas station). It just makes economic sense to run PEVs in all major urban areas in addition to mass transit.

With traffic and some protected bike lanes, even a conventional bike can almost beat a car in a 7-14 mile drive in my city. An ebike makes it even easier.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Surely the oil and energy companies have their own investments into renewables. I can't imagine why Rs would die on this hill except for their little culture war.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 6 months ago

I like it much better when Republicans stick to pushing for things that are just useless rather than destructive.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

republicans are raping the planet.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago (9 children)

The cybertruck can go, sure, but let the rest be

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

You misspelled Russians.

I take that back, you spelled Russians correctly.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago
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