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This is why feel-good nonsense in 1st world countries like plastic bag taxes and banning plastic straws is infuriating.
by jimmaswell 6y ago
This is why feel-good nonsense in 1st world countries like plastic bag taxes and banning plastic straws is infuriating.
- arcticfox 6y agoIs there a source on that actually being nonsense? I recognize that it might have a trivial effect overall given the global situation, but it still seems like a good step to me. I know next to nothing about this though, so I'm interested to hear more.
- jacobush 6y agoI was mildly against it, but now that it’s implemented I feel a little different about it. I think the main impact is going to be cultural - people are going to start feeling weird about using disposable plastic in everything. It’s going to nudge everyone just a little bit away from plastic. The kids growing up now, hardly ever seeing a plastic bag, will grow up to be designers in the future. Predisposed against plastic. I’m now mildly for banning plastic bags. Where paper is not yet optimal, we will eventually iron out the kinks with engineering and science.
- unethical_ban 6y agoYou deny the concept of collective impact. One person using a plastic straw isn't a big deal. Three hundred million people using a few dozen straws per year is additive. Same with all disposables. Furthermore, ocean pollution isn't the only kind. Look at any urban creek/bayou bank after a hard rain and look at the trash that is washed up in the grass. The right-wing pejorative is "virtue-signalling" but is that always bad? Is it bad to set an example, a cultural marker, that we want to encourage re-use and biodegradable materials? This is not an either-or.
- blacksmith_tb 6y agoI agree, but I would say the danger is that people will feel like they have now done their part - "My straw is waxed paper! I'm not destroying the planet!" when in fact plenty of other things in their day-to-day lives have a much larger impact - insulating your home would do more for the world by orders of magnitude (admittedly that doesn't keep straws out of sealife, but choose your battles?)
- Consultant32452 6y agoThrowing someone in a cage for not following your admittedly not very effective "cultural marker" is evil. If you want to use public shaming to convince restaurants to use paper straws, fine, but please leave it at that.
- unethical_ban 6y agoYes, and taxation is theft and you didn't sign a social contract. /s Government power can be exercised without jailtime, but you seem to take everything to the logical extreme.
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- Consultant32452 6y agoI'm going to be free of your fundamentalist religion and there's nothing you can do about it.
- rablackburn 6y agoIs there a jurisdiction somewhere where using plastic straws has been made a criminal offence with jail time as a punishment? Here (Australia) it was implemented as a civil fine and I assumed it would be similar elsewhere. But if that were the case where you live I’d agree that’s awful. If that’s not true then you’ve just made a straw man argument. Hell, even if there _was_ a place where they locked someone up for providing plastic straws to customers I’d argue that the issue is that particular law. Not the broader issue of legal ‘nudges’ to foster positive cultural changes.
- Consultant32452 6y agoIf we don't comply you'll continue to escalate until we do comply or we're dead. That's what happens if I refuse to pay your unjust civil infraction. The fundamentalist faith that is evangelical progressivism allows nothing and no one to fall outside its purview. Every aspect of everyone's life must submit to its edicts.
- staplers 6y agoIt might seem ridiculous in the grand scheme but we don't live on the grand scale anyway. The first world can sacrifice a little bit while demanding change from larger entities.
- megablast 6y agoNot really. It convinces a lot of people to reuse, and use alternative methods.