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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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It seems like you've adopted the "conservatives pounce" position that was sent out as soon as people realized the trial balloon was made of lead. Now all of a sudden it's a "vile culture war attack from conservatives, which just proves they're not human"

I found the conservative media response to be a bit baffling

Indicates that you didn't actually see the response: you saw the left narrative about the response.

The rollout was a flop, but the damage control gaslighting was very effective. Notice how the messaging is now an incoherent mix of "it's fake news" and "stupid conservatives are fighting for the right to have cancer, this proves we have to ban gas stoves."

What's really amazing is that different levels of the left are getting individual narratives tailored for them that are completely contradictory, but this doesn't seem to hurt the overall message! I've seen everything from "this is already a big victory" from professional eco activists who don't have to lie about their goals, to "this was a false flag by the gas industry to make eco activists look bad" to people who need to be lied to.*

You got the "fellow traveler" package that focuses on the "boo conservatives" angle, from the sounds of things. That one's always a safe bet for a broad demographic.

* You see a lot of this multi-track messaging now. Remember how the europe painting attacks were both "a conspiracy by an oil baroness to make us look bad" and "fully justified Direct Action, comrade" depending on how deep down the leftist rabbit hole the listener was? You also see it on the very extreme right where a shooter can be both an FBI false flag crisis actor _and_ a righteous $racialSlur-slayer who should be imitated.

You got the "fellow traveler" package that focuses on the "boo conservatives" angle, from the sounds of things. That one's always a safe bet for a broad demographic.

Okay, this latest shtick of yours - where you chattily ask an ideological opponent which bot subroutine they've been programmed with.

Knock it off.

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I mean the very first thing that came up on google when I searched for a representative article was a WSJ op-ed with the the sub-headline "Don’t believe this week’s denials. Progressive Democrats really are coming for your kitchen appliances."

At least among Canadian conservatives the response was similar. For example from the Toronto Sun: Just the gas stove? No, green zealots want your furnace, hot water tank, too

I'm not a partisan in this debate. I think it would be good if gas stoves get eased out in the near future (more important in areas with high renewable energy production), but there are valid practical, aesthetic, and survival reasons for having a gas stove.

I don't see the disagreement. By your own admittance, Democrats are likely to get their way within a decade. Please pick either 'Democrats aren't coming for your stove' and 'They are but it's for your own good'.

I'm not a partisan in this debate. I think it would be good if gas stoves get eased out in the near future...

This framing speaks volumes about how the Overton Window gets set on these sorts of arguments, in practice. The extreme positions are that stoves should be banned immediately or that people should just be allowed to choose what stove they'd like. The centrist position is that a federal government agency should just make it cumbersome, expensive, and inconvenient to have a gas stove, leading to their eventual phaseout.

I second that. It seems like the moderate or centrist position is ‘people cook with whatever it is they want, barring obvious stupid cases like using spent nuclear fuel as a heat source’. The ‘we should phase out gas stoves’ is a radical left position no matter how gradual.

You can take my enriched plutonium oven from my blistered, dead hands!

Ok, I’ll grab my nuclear level hazmat suit and wait for the media to start wondering if you angered Putin.