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Tangentially related: Has anyone else been shocked by the amount of widespread schadenfreude resulting from this disaster? I get that people dislike Texas for m

by daenz 6y ago

Tangentially related: Has anyone else been shocked by the amount of widespread schadenfreude resulting from this disaster? I get that people dislike Texas for many reasons, but it seems like every avenue of "you deserve it" is being explored on social media towards the people there.

bluedino 6y ago
No different than anything else. Californians should not live near forest fires, New Orleans shouldn’t have been built in the gulf...
mattnewton 6y ago
I think (and hope) it is just a brief reflection on how useless many of those same attacks coming from texas politicians were every time there was a power issue in a blue state; examples- https://mobile.twitter.com/blkahn/status/1361682089310052354?s=21 https://mobile.twitter.com/blkahn/status/1361682089310052354... There is also the fact that Texas isolated itself from the national grid purposefully, which is worth reflecting on after this event. I agree that we should move on from that to helping our fellow Americans asap however.
Analemma_ 6y ago
I mean there was plenty of schadenfreude directed at California during their electrical utility problems as well, much of it from the same people now scrambling to cover their ass regarding Texas's problems. You can argue whether tit-for-tat is a mature or useful behavior, but it isn't coming out of nowhere.
dataflow 6y ago
Not really "shocked" to see it, given that Texans mocked Californians during their wildfires earlier. [1] Especially given even as of yesterday Texan politicians were trying to blame this on Democrats and their plans for green energy. [2] That said I think/hope the sentiment is toward the politicians rather than ordinary people. [1] https://www.salon.com/2021/02/17/texas-republicans-mocked-california-for-blackouts-now-their-tweets-are-coming-back-to-haunt-them/ https://www.salon.com/2021/02/17/texas-republicans-mocked-ca... [2] https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-052453616.html https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-0524...
misiti3780 6y ago
I'm not surprised at all --- it's because climate change is so political and everything is so polarizing. Talk to a right leaning person and they will tell you that the rolling blackouts in California are due to the fact that the electrical grid is too dependent on renewables, and the forest fires are due to too much environmental regulation. They will probably indicate that the Texas storm was a 1 in a 100 year storm, so there was no way to plan for it, it was a black swan. Now go talk to a left leaning person and they will tell you the Texas electric grid is too dependent on nuclear energy and de-regulation of electricity is the root cause. The storm might have affected the poorer neighborhoods, so it was yet another example of systemic racism. They will say the Texans need to stop electing people that dont believe in climate change. Of course there is probably some truth to both, and both sides can actually have valid points, but 99% of the US doesn't seem to understand or speak with any nuance anymore - and it's a huge problem. They re-tweet, re--gram, and re-post content in fits of confirmation bias, only skimming headlines on clickbait.
- onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago
  That's sad. Texas is pretty green in terms of power generation - even compared to California. Texas is 20% renewables [1], California is 32% [2]. [1] https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2019-total-system-electric-generation https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/califo... [2] https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=TX https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=TX
  - misiti3780 6y ago
    I'm not taking a side here, I'm telling you what is happening because I have friends and family on both sides of the isle.
  - hsitz 6y ago
    Note that the source you're using for California lists 'large hydro' as around 15%, but doesn't count it as a "renewable". Texas, by contrast, has close to zero 'large hydro'. It's not clear to me that 'large hydro' is a non-renewable', certainly it's a lot different from most non-renewables, and it's not carbon dioxide producing. If you take that into account, then from (coal/natural gas/oil/nuclear) California has more like 53% of energy while Texas has 80%. That gives a little different perspective. Compare, e.g., with this list, which includes hydro as a category of renewables: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_electricity_production_from_renewable_sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_electri...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
bsder 6y ago
Why? Californians got ripped by Representatives from Texas, both Senators from Texas AND a sitting President. And you expect them to quietly turn the other cheek? Actually, I'm amazed at the amount of restraint I'm seeing. Personally, if I had been Biden, I would have made every single Senator and Representative of Texas come to the White House and perform dogeza before approving the state of emergency declaration for Texas. Of course, that's why I'm not cut out for politics.
ssully 6y ago
The two things I've seen: 1. People bringing up things representatives of Texas said about California last year during the fires, and using that as ammo. I think this is just a case of people hating these representatives and throwing it back in their face. It's not great, but also it's pretty reprehensible to see the things the reps said about he California fire situation. 2. People in states who are acclimated to this kind of weather being snobby. This is annoying, but common in any scenario. I have friends who live in Alaska and I live in Chicago. Two years ago I was bitching to them about hitting -20 degrees Fahrenheit and having issues with my furnace. Their responses were jokes and screen caps of their weather history. I will say though I saw a lot of this at first, but people seem to be understanding that Texas woefully unprepared and that the dunking on them right now isn't helpful.
s_dev 6y ago
To be fair -- Texas as a State and identity has been very outspoken about being pro fossil fuel and quite anti-renewables. The Mayor blaming renewables when it was gas pipes that froze was simply disgusting. Many many Texans are not very envoirnmentally consciencious. It's very much a climate change disaster and many Texans felt insulated from such a global change. To be clear shadenfreude is in poor taste but there is also a lesson for anyone who feels that climate change is other peoples problems. What is happening is awful and Texans deserve all the help the US can give.
- api 6y ago
  That's just standard issue Republican politics and not at all specific to Texas. COVID is a hoax, there were WMDs in Iraq, the guy with horns in the Senate is the leader of Antifa, Trump won by a landslide, etc. I started calling the party "Soviet" way back in the Bush (or "Bushevik") era, and it's only gotten even more so since then. While the official party platform is quite different from the old USSR, the whole "the party platform dictates the facts of reality" thing is similar. I predict it will only get worse. Qanon is in the process of taking over the party. It can have only two outcomes: the victory of an irrationalist / anti-realist Qanon party and the ensuing collapse of the country, or Democratic single party rule which may lead to the same... due to what happens when you have single party rule.
- undefined1 6y ago
  the governor repeatedly said all energy sources failed, including gas and even nuclear. he gave specific numbers, pointing out that more energy was lost with natural gas compared to wind. of course people omit that because it's counter narrative. also, Texas is a leader in wind power. it produces more than any other state and more than most countries. If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas
- caseysoftware 6y ago
  Texas is NOT anti-renewables. We're #2 in the US for solar[0], #1 for wind[1], and #5 for nuclear[2] with roughly 25% of our power coming from wind alone. Unfortunately, since weather like this doesn't occur very often (every ~60-100 years), the wind turbines aren't weatherized as they are in Canada and elsewhere. When half of that went offline on Sunday morning, it fell to natural gas to make up the difference. When the temperature continued dropping, the gas flowed more slowly and couldn't keep the right pressure levels, removing roughly a third of that production. To be fair, your criticism would be more useful if it was built on facts. 0 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/solar-energy-production-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/solar-energy-produc... 1 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/wind-generation-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/wind-generation-by-... 2 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/nuclear-generation-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/nuclear-generation-...
decebalus1 6y ago
You can't gloat that you have a purposefully independent power grid, propose secession bills and mock Californians for rolling blackouts and then be all `Surprised Pikachu` when people talk shit about your infrastructure's catastrophic failure.
kardos 6y ago
> but it seems like every avenue of "you deserve it" is being explored on social media Trolls are still a thing, this is what they do Edit: As other comments are pointing out, poor planning is not unique to Texas [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjfrJzdx7DA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjfrJzdx7DA
dota_fanatic 6y ago
To some extent, yes, I am. On the one hand, their elected officials are absolutely asking for it. On the other hand, 46.5% of those who voted (5.3 mil) voted for Biden and 48.3% (4 mil) voted for Beto when he ran against Cruz. There are more of "their tribe" living in Texas than live in many blue states combined. And even despite the control of Republicans there, Texas is blazing towards green energy wrt wind and solar investments. The polarization and alienation worsens just as empathy becomes more and more important to facing the massive ecological problems at hand.
kstrauser 6y ago
I am very, very sympathetic to the people of Texas. There are a lot of decent folks in a terrible situation solely because of their awful and incompetent politicians. The schadenfreude I feel is at the blowback these same politicians are getting for their idiotic statements: - Ex-mayor Tim Boyd forced into resignation after saying "if you were sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising!" about his constituents? Hilarious! - Gov. Greg Abbott getting raked over the coals for blaming his failures on California? Keep it coming! - Sen. Ted Cruz being called out for previously saying "California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity"? Inject that right into my veins. There are lots of good people in Texas. There are also lots of decent, hardworking, well-meaning politicians. I'm not enjoying these nice people having to suffer. I am very much enjoying the self-inflected suffering from the handful of visible idiots in charge.
- ve55 6y ago
  "I am very much enjoying the self-inflected suffering" This seems like something that would be very bad if applied to everyone. Perhaps I'd get hate for saying this in 2021, but I'd prefer a society where no one enjoys anyone else's suffering, no matter how much they dislike that person or feel that they 'deserved' it. I want a world with less suffering for everyone, not more.
  - selectodude 6y ago
    Ted Cruz voted against aid for the NE after Hurricane Sandy and was pretty quick to ask for FEMA assistance after both Hurricane Harvey and this self-inflicted catastrophe. Some people deserve it. He's one of them.
  - kaibee 6y ago
    The fact of the matter is that those in charge, who made the decisions that led to this, are at best, "suffering" political consequences. They aren't suffering the same way that the people of Texas are suffering.
  - 6y ago
landryraccoon 6y ago
I wouldn't confuse mockery for active attempts to harm. When California had wildfire disasters, Trump actively impeded efforts to provide relief, and Texas politicians openly attempted to delay federal aid. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Biden immediately activated FEMA, and NO national Democratic politician to my knowledge is arguing that Texas should not get immediate relief. And I completely agree that Texas SHOULD get as much federal relief as possible. But as far as hurting their feelings go? I mean, during the wildfires, Texas politicians like Ted Cruz were very happy to mock us, so what's the issue, really?
- klyrs 6y ago
  > so what's the issue, really? I'll go on the record and say it's fine to use Ted "it's sunny in Cancun" Cruz as a punching bag right now. The issue is the schadenfreude regarding the people who live in Texas. Individuals have very little power over their state, and are suffering the decisions made by self-serving politicians. The country is cracking under polarization, and rather than come together as a nation, we're using this to widen the chasm. It's tragedy upon tragedy.
  - landryraccoon 6y ago
    > come together as a nation Ok, fair enough. What's the conservative's olive branch here? What are they doing to come together as a nation? Or is that just code for "we know we lost the election, but we want you to give us everything while we give up nothing anyway"?
    - klyrs 6y ago
      Hate the politicians, hate the State, but keep room in your heart for the people that live there. Those folks don't owe anybody an olive branch right now.
throw0101a 6y ago
> […] but it seems like every avenue of "you deserve it" is being explored on social media towards the people there. I don't know about "deserve", but if you don't want to get hit by lightning, don't go golfing during a thunderstorm. Texas had a similar storm in 2011, and there was a report about what should be done: ERCOT decided to ignore it. Meanwhile, some places that are not managed by ERCOT decided to pay attention: > El Paso is not apart of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a major grid operator that controls about 90% of the state’s electric load. El Paso Electric, which oversee's the electricity from Hatch to Van Horn, said the Borderland is apart of the Western International grid. […] > El Paso Electric said they always try to prepare for the future and after a winter storm in 2011, the utility company worked towards replacing and upgrading their equipment. Many generators now have antifreeze protection. * https://kvia.com/news/el-paso/2021/02/15/el-pasos-not-seeing-power-outages-like-the-rest-of-texas-and-heres-why/ https://kvia.com/news/el-paso/2021/02/15/el-pasos-not-seeing... Meanwhile, former Texas governor (and previous Secretary of Energy) Rick Perry: > "Rick Perry says Texans would rather be without power for days over more federal oversight" * https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/rick-perry-says-texans-would-rather-be-without-power-for-days-than-have-more-fed-oversight https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/rick-perry-says-texans-woul... H.L. Mencken once said: Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. The people running the show now, and for the last few decades, in Texas is supposedly what 'the people' want (notwithstanding over suppression).
_peeley 6y ago
This has easily been the worst thing I've seen this week (other than the disaster itself, of course). The way that I've seen so many centre-left urbanites talk about people in "red states" is outright genocidal at times - how could any sane person see someone with differing political opinions lacking power, water, or heat and think, "Yes, punishment!"? Somehow it never crosses their minds that if there are people in the South committing various wrongdoings (racism, voter suppression, draconian criminal justice system, etc), there are even more people in the South suffering from these wrongdoings.
- mattnewton 6y ago
  I think (I hope!) it's pointed at the Texas representatives who have used every natural disaster in blue states to talk about how the opposition can't govern, and not the common Texan who votes for them.
klyrs 6y ago
I think it's inappropriate, for sure, but I'm no more "shocked" than I was when California was burning and folks on the right were doing the same. A younger me would hope that this would establish some empathy between the Texans and Californians... but today, I can't see how media companies would profit from that, so I'm not holding my breath
fshbbdssbbgdd 6y ago
IMO you should never be shocked by what you read on social media, if you keep in mind that you are seeing the most shocking of the millions of reactions to recent events. The way retweets on Twitter work mean that the most interesting tweets get distributed widely and are more likely to end up in the average user’s timeline. That means that your timeline is going to show you a lot of stuff that’s not representative of the average person’s reaction, which probably gives you an inaccurate view of public opinion. A lot of people will adopt views that they are presented as popular, so this can have the effect of making the most extreme views more prevalent. Then you hear your friends spouting insane conspiracy theories that were invented five hours ago, or proudly repeating clever jokes to spit on the graves of the recently deceased. Of course, it’s not just Twitter that has this effect. Political commentary shows on TV and radio have been doing this professionally for decades, newspapers did it before that, and politicians probably invented the practice. I do think that social media, by drawing from such a large sample of posters, can find more extreme takes phrased in a more compelling way, and deliver them to people are weren’t event looking for political content.
pmiller2 6y ago
I don't know about "you deserve it," but this whole shit show is certainly a huge failure of government to do basic things, like invest in, and maintain infrastructure. [0] For example, Rick Perry, former Texas governor and Trump administration Secretary of Energy says “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business." [1] It seems to me that many Texans disagree. I get that Republicans are theoretically in favor of small government and minimal regulation (although you wouldn't know it by the way the Federal bureaucracy has expanded under Republican presidential administrations). There is a certain sort of logic to that position, which I won't delve deeply into, but I do want to acknowledge. But, if there ever was a place for government regulation, a public utility that serves the entire state (the Texas power grid) is certainly one of them. Republicans are doing themselves no favors politically by saying things like this while millions of Texans are out of power, and basically making caricatures out of themselves. --- [0]: Just for the sake of fairness, I will mention that PG&E is not great on this front, either, but they're not the subject of this article, after all. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/18/rick-perry-texans-endure-blackouts-keep-government-out https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/18/rick-perry-t...
OminousWeapons 6y ago
If you are going to call other people out (eg California) in a holier than thou fashion for not following a set of ideological and moral standards that you believe in surrounding independence, deregulation, and self-sufficiency, of course you are going to be blasted when it turns out that you can't live up to your own professed standards. This is equivalent to people saying "I don't need your help / rules, and I don't believe in COVID" who then get sick and rush to emergency room begging for help at the first sign of trouble. If you are going to take extreme stances on independence and self-reliance then you can deal with the ramifications of your decisions independently.

by daenz 6y ago

bluedino 6y ago

No different than anything else. Californians should not live near forest fires, New Orleans shouldn’t have been built in the gulf...

mattnewton 6y ago

I think (and hope) it is just a brief reflection on how useless many of those same attacks coming from texas politicians were every time there was a power issue in a blue state; examples- https://mobile.twitter.com/blkahn/status/1361682089310052354?s=21 https://mobile.twitter.com/blkahn/status/1361682089310052354... There is also the fact that Texas isolated itself from the national grid purposefully, which is worth reflecting on after this event. I agree that we should move on from that to helping our fellow Americans asap however.

Analemma_ 6y ago

I mean there was plenty of schadenfreude directed at California during their electrical utility problems as well, much of it from the same people now scrambling to cover their ass regarding Texas's problems. You can argue whether tit-for-tat is a mature or useful behavior, but it isn't coming out of nowhere.

dataflow 6y ago

Not really "shocked" to see it, given that Texans mocked Californians during their wildfires earlier. [1] Especially given even as of yesterday Texan politicians were trying to blame this on Democrats and their plans for green energy. [2] That said I think/hope the sentiment is toward the politicians rather than ordinary people. [1] https://www.salon.com/2021/02/17/texas-republicans-mocked-california-for-blackouts-now-their-tweets-are-coming-back-to-haunt-them/ https://www.salon.com/2021/02/17/texas-republicans-mocked-ca... [2] https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-052453616.html https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-0524...

misiti3780 6y ago

I'm not surprised at all --- it's because climate change is so political and everything is so polarizing. Talk to a right leaning person and they will tell you that the rolling blackouts in California are due to the fact that the electrical grid is too dependent on renewables, and the forest fires are due to too much environmental regulation. They will probably indicate that the Texas storm was a 1 in a 100 year storm, so there was no way to plan for it, it was a black swan. Now go talk to a left leaning person and they will tell you the Texas electric grid is too dependent on nuclear energy and de-regulation of electricity is the root cause. The storm might have affected the poorer neighborhoods, so it was yet another example of systemic racism. They will say the Texans need to stop electing people that dont believe in climate change. Of course there is probably some truth to both, and both sides can actually have valid points, but 99% of the US doesn't seem to understand or speak with any nuance anymore - and it's a huge problem. They re-tweet, re--gram, and re-post content in fits of confirmation bias, only skimming headlines on clickbait.

onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago
That's sad. Texas is pretty green in terms of power generation - even compared to California. Texas is 20% renewables [1], California is 32% [2]. [1] https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2019-total-system-electric-generation https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/califo... [2] https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=TX https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=TX
- misiti3780 6y ago
  I'm not taking a side here, I'm telling you what is happening because I have friends and family on both sides of the isle.
- hsitz 6y ago
  Note that the source you're using for California lists 'large hydro' as around 15%, but doesn't count it as a "renewable". Texas, by contrast, has close to zero 'large hydro'. It's not clear to me that 'large hydro' is a non-renewable', certainly it's a lot different from most non-renewables, and it's not carbon dioxide producing. If you take that into account, then from (coal/natural gas/oil/nuclear) California has more like 53% of energy while Texas has 80%. That gives a little different perspective. Compare, e.g., with this list, which includes hydro as a category of renewables: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_electricity_production_from_renewable_sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_electri...

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

bsder 6y ago

Why? Californians got ripped by Representatives from Texas, both Senators from Texas AND a sitting President. And you expect them to quietly turn the other cheek? Actually, I'm amazed at the amount of restraint I'm seeing. Personally, if I had been Biden, I would have made every single Senator and Representative of Texas come to the White House and perform dogeza before approving the state of emergency declaration for Texas. Of course, that's why I'm not cut out for politics.

ssully 6y ago

The two things I've seen: 1. People bringing up things representatives of Texas said about California last year during the fires, and using that as ammo. I think this is just a case of people hating these representatives and throwing it back in their face. It's not great, but also it's pretty reprehensible to see the things the reps said about he California fire situation. 2. People in states who are acclimated to this kind of weather being snobby. This is annoying, but common in any scenario. I have friends who live in Alaska and I live in Chicago. Two years ago I was bitching to them about hitting -20 degrees Fahrenheit and having issues with my furnace. Their responses were jokes and screen caps of their weather history. I will say though I saw a lot of this at first, but people seem to be understanding that Texas woefully unprepared and that the dunking on them right now isn't helpful.

s_dev 6y ago

To be fair -- Texas as a State and identity has been very outspoken about being pro fossil fuel and quite anti-renewables. The Mayor blaming renewables when it was gas pipes that froze was simply disgusting. Many many Texans are not very envoirnmentally consciencious. It's very much a climate change disaster and many Texans felt insulated from such a global change. To be clear shadenfreude is in poor taste but there is also a lesson for anyone who feels that climate change is other peoples problems. What is happening is awful and Texans deserve all the help the US can give.

api 6y ago
That's just standard issue Republican politics and not at all specific to Texas. COVID is a hoax, there were WMDs in Iraq, the guy with horns in the Senate is the leader of Antifa, Trump won by a landslide, etc. I started calling the party "Soviet" way back in the Bush (or "Bushevik") era, and it's only gotten even more so since then. While the official party platform is quite different from the old USSR, the whole "the party platform dictates the facts of reality" thing is similar. I predict it will only get worse. Qanon is in the process of taking over the party. It can have only two outcomes: the victory of an irrationalist / anti-realist Qanon party and the ensuing collapse of the country, or Democratic single party rule which may lead to the same... due to what happens when you have single party rule.
undefined1 6y ago
the governor repeatedly said all energy sources failed, including gas and even nuclear. he gave specific numbers, pointing out that more energy was lost with natural gas compared to wind. of course people omit that because it's counter narrative. also, Texas is a leader in wind power. it produces more than any other state and more than most countries. If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas
caseysoftware 6y ago
Texas is NOT anti-renewables. We're #2 in the US for solar[0], #1 for wind[1], and #5 for nuclear[2] with roughly 25% of our power coming from wind alone. Unfortunately, since weather like this doesn't occur very often (every ~60-100 years), the wind turbines aren't weatherized as they are in Canada and elsewhere. When half of that went offline on Sunday morning, it fell to natural gas to make up the difference. When the temperature continued dropping, the gas flowed more slowly and couldn't keep the right pressure levels, removing roughly a third of that production. To be fair, your criticism would be more useful if it was built on facts. 0 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/solar-energy-production-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/solar-energy-produc... 1 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/wind-generation-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/wind-generation-by-... 2 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/nuclear-generation-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/nuclear-generation-...

decebalus1 6y ago

You can't gloat that you have a purposefully independent power grid, propose secession bills and mock Californians for rolling blackouts and then be all `Surprised Pikachu` when people talk shit about your infrastructure's catastrophic failure.

kardos 6y ago

> but it seems like every avenue of "you deserve it" is being explored on social media Trolls are still a thing, this is what they do Edit: As other comments are pointing out, poor planning is not unique to Texas [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjfrJzdx7DA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjfrJzdx7DA

dota_fanatic 6y ago

To some extent, yes, I am. On the one hand, their elected officials are absolutely asking for it. On the other hand, 46.5% of those who voted (5.3 mil) voted for Biden and 48.3% (4 mil) voted for Beto when he ran against Cruz. There are more of "their tribe" living in Texas than live in many blue states combined. And even despite the control of Republicans there, Texas is blazing towards green energy wrt wind and solar investments. The polarization and alienation worsens just as empathy becomes more and more important to facing the massive ecological problems at hand.

kstrauser 6y ago

I am very, very sympathetic to the people of Texas. There are a lot of decent folks in a terrible situation solely because of their awful and incompetent politicians. The schadenfreude I feel is at the blowback these same politicians are getting for their idiotic statements: - Ex-mayor Tim Boyd forced into resignation after saying "if you were sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising!" about his constituents? Hilarious! - Gov. Greg Abbott getting raked over the coals for blaming his failures on California? Keep it coming! - Sen. Ted Cruz being called out for previously saying "California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity"? Inject that right into my veins. There are lots of good people in Texas. There are also lots of decent, hardworking, well-meaning politicians. I'm not enjoying these nice people having to suffer. I am very much enjoying the self-inflected suffering from the handful of visible idiots in charge.

ve55 6y ago
"I am very much enjoying the self-inflected suffering" This seems like something that would be very bad if applied to everyone. Perhaps I'd get hate for saying this in 2021, but I'd prefer a society where no one enjoys anyone else's suffering, no matter how much they dislike that person or feel that they 'deserved' it. I want a world with less suffering for everyone, not more.
- selectodude 6y ago
  Ted Cruz voted against aid for the NE after Hurricane Sandy and was pretty quick to ask for FEMA assistance after both Hurricane Harvey and this self-inflicted catastrophe. Some people deserve it. He's one of them.
- kaibee 6y ago
  The fact of the matter is that those in charge, who made the decisions that led to this, are at best, "suffering" political consequences. They aren't suffering the same way that the people of Texas are suffering.
- 6y ago

landryraccoon 6y ago

I wouldn't confuse mockery for active attempts to harm. When California had wildfire disasters, Trump actively impeded efforts to provide relief, and Texas politicians openly attempted to delay federal aid. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Biden immediately activated FEMA, and NO national Democratic politician to my knowledge is arguing that Texas should not get immediate relief. And I completely agree that Texas SHOULD get as much federal relief as possible. But as far as hurting their feelings go? I mean, during the wildfires, Texas politicians like Ted Cruz were very happy to mock us, so what's the issue, really?

klyrs 6y ago
> so what's the issue, really? I'll go on the record and say it's fine to use Ted "it's sunny in Cancun" Cruz as a punching bag right now. The issue is the schadenfreude regarding the people who live in Texas. Individuals have very little power over their state, and are suffering the decisions made by self-serving politicians. The country is cracking under polarization, and rather than come together as a nation, we're using this to widen the chasm. It's tragedy upon tragedy.
- landryraccoon 6y ago
  > come together as a nation Ok, fair enough. What's the conservative's olive branch here? What are they doing to come together as a nation? Or is that just code for "we know we lost the election, but we want you to give us everything while we give up nothing anyway"?
  - klyrs 6y ago
    Hate the politicians, hate the State, but keep room in your heart for the people that live there. Those folks don't owe anybody an olive branch right now.

throw0101a 6y ago

> […] but it seems like every avenue of "you deserve it" is being explored on social media towards the people there. I don't know about "deserve", but if you don't want to get hit by lightning, don't go golfing during a thunderstorm. Texas had a similar storm in 2011, and there was a report about what should be done: ERCOT decided to ignore it. Meanwhile, some places that are not managed by ERCOT decided to pay attention: > El Paso is not apart of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a major grid operator that controls about 90% of the state’s electric load. El Paso Electric, which oversee's the electricity from Hatch to Van Horn, said the Borderland is apart of the Western International grid. […] > El Paso Electric said they always try to prepare for the future and after a winter storm in 2011, the utility company worked towards replacing and upgrading their equipment. Many generators now have antifreeze protection. * https://kvia.com/news/el-paso/2021/02/15/el-pasos-not-seeing-power-outages-like-the-rest-of-texas-and-heres-why/ https://kvia.com/news/el-paso/2021/02/15/el-pasos-not-seeing... Meanwhile, former Texas governor (and previous Secretary of Energy) Rick Perry: > "Rick Perry says Texans would rather be without power for days over more federal oversight" * https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/rick-perry-says-texans-would-rather-be-without-power-for-days-than-have-more-fed-oversight https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/rick-perry-says-texans-woul... H.L. Mencken once said: Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. The people running the show now, and for the last few decades, in Texas is supposedly what 'the people' want (notwithstanding over suppression).

_peeley 6y ago

This has easily been the worst thing I've seen this week (other than the disaster itself, of course). The way that I've seen so many centre-left urbanites talk about people in "red states" is outright genocidal at times - how could any sane person see someone with differing political opinions lacking power, water, or heat and think, "Yes, punishment!"? Somehow it never crosses their minds that if there are people in the South committing various wrongdoings (racism, voter suppression, draconian criminal justice system, etc), there are even more people in the South suffering from these wrongdoings.

mattnewton 6y ago
I think (I hope!) it's pointed at the Texas representatives who have used every natural disaster in blue states to talk about how the opposition can't govern, and not the common Texan who votes for them.

klyrs 6y ago

I think it's inappropriate, for sure, but I'm no more "shocked" than I was when California was burning and folks on the right were doing the same. A younger me would hope that this would establish some empathy between the Texans and Californians... but today, I can't see how media companies would profit from that, so I'm not holding my breath

fshbbdssbbgdd 6y ago

IMO you should never be shocked by what you read on social media, if you keep in mind that you are seeing the most shocking of the millions of reactions to recent events. The way retweets on Twitter work mean that the most interesting tweets get distributed widely and are more likely to end up in the average user’s timeline. That means that your timeline is going to show you a lot of stuff that’s not representative of the average person’s reaction, which probably gives you an inaccurate view of public opinion. A lot of people will adopt views that they are presented as popular, so this can have the effect of making the most extreme views more prevalent. Then you hear your friends spouting insane conspiracy theories that were invented five hours ago, or proudly repeating clever jokes to spit on the graves of the recently deceased. Of course, it’s not just Twitter that has this effect. Political commentary shows on TV and radio have been doing this professionally for decades, newspapers did it before that, and politicians probably invented the practice. I do think that social media, by drawing from such a large sample of posters, can find more extreme takes phrased in a more compelling way, and deliver them to people are weren’t event looking for political content.

pmiller2 6y ago

I don't know about "you deserve it," but this whole shit show is certainly a huge failure of government to do basic things, like invest in, and maintain infrastructure. [0] For example, Rick Perry, former Texas governor and Trump administration Secretary of Energy says “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business." [1] It seems to me that many Texans disagree. I get that Republicans are theoretically in favor of small government and minimal regulation (although you wouldn't know it by the way the Federal bureaucracy has expanded under Republican presidential administrations). There is a certain sort of logic to that position, which I won't delve deeply into, but I do want to acknowledge. But, if there ever was a place for government regulation, a public utility that serves the entire state (the Texas power grid) is certainly one of them. Republicans are doing themselves no favors politically by saying things like this while millions of Texans are out of power, and basically making caricatures out of themselves. --- [0]: Just for the sake of fairness, I will mention that PG&E is not great on this front, either, but they're not the subject of this article, after all. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/18/rick-perry-texans-endure-blackouts-keep-government-out https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/18/rick-perry-t...

OminousWeapons 6y ago

If you are going to call other people out (eg California) in a holier than thou fashion for not following a set of ideological and moral standards that you believe in surrounding independence, deregulation, and self-sufficiency, of course you are going to be blasted when it turns out that you can't live up to your own professed standards. This is equivalent to people saying "I don't need your help / rules, and I don't believe in COVID" who then get sick and rush to emergency room begging for help at the first sign of trouble. If you are going to take extreme stances on independence and self-reliance then you can deal with the ramifications of your decisions independently.