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It's amazing to watch the national brouhaha over this situation while also being an affected resident of Texas. It's amazing how people have adopted passionate

It's amazing to watch the national brouhaha over this situation while also being an affected resident of Texas. It's amazing how people have adopted passionate stances despite not living here or knowing anything about power grids. Heck, even friends of mine who are affected take whatever stance they already agree with. Deregulation is good! It's the GOP's fault! It's the windmills. No, its not the windmills! I'm starting to internalize the idea that the news and the popular talk on social media is heavily distorted and based on what we are already biased to believe.

ptcrash 6y ago
I've wondered about how much of outsiders' responses have been driven by their own prejudice against Texas and our current political representatives. Which really isn't fair since Texas has a massive number of democratic voters. We have multiple large metropolitan areas but we also have massive rural regions that tend to outweigh when it comes time to vote.
- rbanffy 6y ago
  I always suggest democratic voters to mode to districts where their votes count the most.
- dominotw 6y ago
  > Which really isn't fair since Texas has a massive number of democratic voters meaning it would've been fair if didn't have democratic voters?
  - ptcrash 6y ago
    As in, Texas has a fair blend of both parties but get perceived as being "red". With the current political atmosphere, people tend to want to make issues political. What this article is trying to point out is that this was an engineering problem, not a policy problem.
- BitwiseFool 6y ago
  I would say the majority of those outside responses are from people who see Texas as some kind of backwards red state that was overdue for some comeuppance. If you look at the red vs blue divide nationally, this is quite literally the perfect storm for blue team to yell at red team "I told ya so". Intense weather due to climate change which red team denies, loving the idea of an independent grid that cuts you off from other states, being against federal regulations but asking for federal aid, and having one of your senators fly to Cancun in the middle of it. I could go on, but all of this happened right after talk of succession was trending on social media. I also believe a lot of online activists are hoping to capture the energy and anger over this event to "turn Texas blue" as they have been wanting to do.
  - tommyguide 6y ago
    You're not wrong, but red team is not exactly wasting the opportunity to score political points either: Rick Perry and others saying "See? Wind power + green new deal bad".
    - BitwiseFool 6y ago
      That's true, I am just more exposed to the Twitter and Reddit coverage, which is decidedly blue team. There is absolutely a bunch of red team folks trying to use this to their advantage. However I will say that I don't think red team is going to be as successful as blue team in this event.
  - rootusrootus 6y ago
    > I would say the majority of those outside responses are from people who see Texas as some kind of backwards red state that was overdue for some comeuppance. Consider that Texans have a well-earned reputation for talking about secession from the union, Don't Mess with Texas, etc. In some ways the dynamic between Texas and not-Texas reminds me of the dynamic between USA and not-USA. > turn Texas blue People have to realize that there is not really red states and blue states. It's urban-vs-rural, and whether a state turns red or blue has everything to do with the growth of metropolitan areas, not some shift in political values.
- folkhack 6y ago
  > I've wondered about how much of outsiders' responses have been driven by their own prejudice against Texas and our current political representatives. Californian with family in the Midwest - lots of folks are too dense to realize there are people on the other side of natural disasters when these horrible situations are happening. That prejudice happens to some degree, I've lived it =/ Regardless of politics, best of luck to you and your own.
joe_the_user 6y ago
It's amazing to watch the national brouhaha over this situation while also being an affected resident of Texas. It's amazing how people have adopted passionate stances despite not living here or knowing anything about power grids. It's as if ... being affected by this terrible doesn't make someone an expert on situation since whatever is happening with the grid is quite far from those affected. But it's not like there being differing opinions means that truth and falsehood cease to exist. Someone is lying, specifically Fox News and the governor of Texas are about alternative energy. Some policies really were problematic. etc. And I'm sorry the diverse people of Texas have to suffer this. If one policy makers were the one who had to freeze in the dark but that's life.
- fuzzfactor 6y ago
  >If one policy makers were the one who had to freeze in the dark but that's life. Exactly. Sen. Ted Cruz just was discovered flying with his family to Cancun because they lost power and water like the rest of us. Had to return in disgrace a few hours ago and is currently still not able to offer a consistent excuse for abandoning his constituents. https://abc13.com/politics/it-was-a-mistake---ted-cruz-tells-abc13-of-cancun-trip/10351914/ https://abc13.com/politics/it-was-a-mistake---ted-cruz-tells... In each media interview he gives a different shade of the story as he tries to walk it back. He's got to be lying in at least all but one scenario he explains it as. Definitely not good enough for Texas.
txlpo78 6y ago
I have been amazed, and also disappointed, by the amount of people that want this to be the fault of “stupid conservative Texas” and absolutely refuse to even entertain the idea that anything other than “Texas is dumb” could have been a contributor. Even in this thread, the number of comments that adamantly insist “this is only a Texas problem”, despite facts to the contrary, is astounding. That goes the other way around, too (lots of conservatives immediately blaming windmills etc). It reminds me a lot of the Reddit posts whenever a bombing happens. You’ll see people from both sides rabidly hoping that it was a Muslim suicide bomber or a far-right extremist, because if that’s the case they can use the event to push their political agenda. It’s sickening, IMO. There surely is room here for criticizing Texas GOP policies, but they aren’t the only problem here, and if we actually want to fix things we need to stop playing these ridiculous partisan games and be honest with ourselves with the full picture of issues.
- chordalkeyboard 6y ago
  > I have been amazed, and also disappointed, by the amount of people that want this to be the fault of “stupid conservative Texas” and absolutely refuse to even entertain the idea that anything other than “Texas is dumb” could have been a contributor. In my opinion this is the result of a mentality that sees the government as the obvious solution to problems, so when you see problems existing in a place where people seem to have a different philosophy of government, its clearly the fault of those morons who don’t realize that all problems can be solved by sufficient application of government force. > if we actually want to fix things we need to stop playing these ridiculous partisan games and be honest with ourselves with the full picture of issues. Some people actually do want to fix things on some level, but they are quite confident in their understanding of the problem and they believe that the indicated solution is clear, and anyone who doesn’t agree with them is either stupid, or evil, or both. So they’re unwilling to abandon what they see as a perfectly correct solution because a bunch of evil morons want to argue about “unintended consequences” or “agent-principal problems.” Other people are more interested in signaling their ideological alignment with the above, and the object level issue provides them with opportunities to signal.
  - 6y ago
dragonwriter 6y ago
> It's amazing how people have adopted passionate stances despite not living here or knowing anything about power grids. The people who started publicly adopting passionate (and quite obviously false) stances despite not knowing (or worse, knowing but adopting the false stances anyway) about electrical grids live in and have responsibility for Texas, the crisis, and the response to it. And that's what turned it into a tribal, partisan political issue. You Texans don't like that, you should consider it next time you find yourselves in front of a ballot. Or sooner; effective political engagement requires more than voting.
- konjin 6y ago
  I was unaware I could use the ballot to remove dumb twitter users. Can you point me where I can do that?
fuzzfactor 6y ago
>It's the windmills. No, its not the windmills! It's the Bozos. They're going to goof things up and they know it so they need you to be _tilting at windmills_ in other directions for distraction.
HNfriend234 6y ago
It is like that because of social media and news outlets that basically produce "confirmation bias" news that has no other intention but to reinforce one's own existing beliefs. Both sides do it so it is not a partisan issue. This is what I think is actually behind the reason that the USA is so divided now and each side of the debate is so entranced in the typical political discourse.

ptcrash 6y ago

I've wondered about how much of outsiders' responses have been driven by their own prejudice against Texas and our current political representatives. Which really isn't fair since Texas has a massive number of democratic voters. We have multiple large metropolitan areas but we also have massive rural regions that tend to outweigh when it comes time to vote.

rbanffy 6y ago
I always suggest democratic voters to mode to districts where their votes count the most.
dominotw 6y ago
> Which really isn't fair since Texas has a massive number of democratic voters meaning it would've been fair if didn't have democratic voters?
- ptcrash 6y ago
  As in, Texas has a fair blend of both parties but get perceived as being "red". With the current political atmosphere, people tend to want to make issues political. What this article is trying to point out is that this was an engineering problem, not a policy problem.
BitwiseFool 6y ago
I would say the majority of those outside responses are from people who see Texas as some kind of backwards red state that was overdue for some comeuppance. If you look at the red vs blue divide nationally, this is quite literally the perfect storm for blue team to yell at red team "I told ya so". Intense weather due to climate change which red team denies, loving the idea of an independent grid that cuts you off from other states, being against federal regulations but asking for federal aid, and having one of your senators fly to Cancun in the middle of it. I could go on, but all of this happened right after talk of succession was trending on social media. I also believe a lot of online activists are hoping to capture the energy and anger over this event to "turn Texas blue" as they have been wanting to do.
- tommyguide 6y ago
  You're not wrong, but red team is not exactly wasting the opportunity to score political points either: Rick Perry and others saying "See? Wind power + green new deal bad".
  - BitwiseFool 6y ago
    That's true, I am just more exposed to the Twitter and Reddit coverage, which is decidedly blue team. There is absolutely a bunch of red team folks trying to use this to their advantage. However I will say that I don't think red team is going to be as successful as blue team in this event.
- rootusrootus 6y ago
  > I would say the majority of those outside responses are from people who see Texas as some kind of backwards red state that was overdue for some comeuppance. Consider that Texans have a well-earned reputation for talking about secession from the union, Don't Mess with Texas, etc. In some ways the dynamic between Texas and not-Texas reminds me of the dynamic between USA and not-USA. > turn Texas blue People have to realize that there is not really red states and blue states. It's urban-vs-rural, and whether a state turns red or blue has everything to do with the growth of metropolitan areas, not some shift in political values.
folkhack 6y ago
> I've wondered about how much of outsiders' responses have been driven by their own prejudice against Texas and our current political representatives. Californian with family in the Midwest - lots of folks are too dense to realize there are people on the other side of natural disasters when these horrible situations are happening. That prejudice happens to some degree, I've lived it =/ Regardless of politics, best of luck to you and your own.

joe_the_user 6y ago

It's amazing to watch the national brouhaha over this situation while also being an affected resident of Texas. It's amazing how people have adopted passionate stances despite not living here or knowing anything about power grids. It's as if ... being affected by this terrible doesn't make someone an expert on situation since whatever is happening with the grid is quite far from those affected. But it's not like there being differing opinions means that truth and falsehood cease to exist. Someone is lying, specifically Fox News and the governor of Texas are about alternative energy. Some policies really were problematic. etc. And I'm sorry the diverse people of Texas have to suffer this. If one policy makers were the one who had to freeze in the dark but that's life.

fuzzfactor 6y ago
>If one policy makers were the one who had to freeze in the dark but that's life. Exactly. Sen. Ted Cruz just was discovered flying with his family to Cancun because they lost power and water like the rest of us. Had to return in disgrace a few hours ago and is currently still not able to offer a consistent excuse for abandoning his constituents. https://abc13.com/politics/it-was-a-mistake---ted-cruz-tells-abc13-of-cancun-trip/10351914/ https://abc13.com/politics/it-was-a-mistake---ted-cruz-tells... In each media interview he gives a different shade of the story as he tries to walk it back. He's got to be lying in at least all but one scenario he explains it as. Definitely not good enough for Texas.

txlpo78 6y ago

I have been amazed, and also disappointed, by the amount of people that want this to be the fault of “stupid conservative Texas” and absolutely refuse to even entertain the idea that anything other than “Texas is dumb” could have been a contributor. Even in this thread, the number of comments that adamantly insist “this is only a Texas problem”, despite facts to the contrary, is astounding. That goes the other way around, too (lots of conservatives immediately blaming windmills etc). It reminds me a lot of the Reddit posts whenever a bombing happens. You’ll see people from both sides rabidly hoping that it was a Muslim suicide bomber or a far-right extremist, because if that’s the case they can use the event to push their political agenda. It’s sickening, IMO. There surely is room here for criticizing Texas GOP policies, but they aren’t the only problem here, and if we actually want to fix things we need to stop playing these ridiculous partisan games and be honest with ourselves with the full picture of issues.

chordalkeyboard 6y ago
> I have been amazed, and also disappointed, by the amount of people that want this to be the fault of “stupid conservative Texas” and absolutely refuse to even entertain the idea that anything other than “Texas is dumb” could have been a contributor. In my opinion this is the result of a mentality that sees the government as the obvious solution to problems, so when you see problems existing in a place where people seem to have a different philosophy of government, its clearly the fault of those morons who don’t realize that all problems can be solved by sufficient application of government force. > if we actually want to fix things we need to stop playing these ridiculous partisan games and be honest with ourselves with the full picture of issues. Some people actually do want to fix things on some level, but they are quite confident in their understanding of the problem and they believe that the indicated solution is clear, and anyone who doesn’t agree with them is either stupid, or evil, or both. So they’re unwilling to abandon what they see as a perfectly correct solution because a bunch of evil morons want to argue about “unintended consequences” or “agent-principal problems.” Other people are more interested in signaling their ideological alignment with the above, and the object level issue provides them with opportunities to signal.
- 6y ago

dragonwriter 6y ago

> It's amazing how people have adopted passionate stances despite not living here or knowing anything about power grids. The people who started publicly adopting passionate (and quite obviously false) stances despite not knowing (or worse, knowing but adopting the false stances anyway) about electrical grids live in and have responsibility for Texas, the crisis, and the response to it. And that's what turned it into a tribal, partisan political issue. You Texans don't like that, you should consider it next time you find yourselves in front of a ballot. Or sooner; effective political engagement requires more than voting.

konjin 6y ago
I was unaware I could use the ballot to remove dumb twitter users. Can you point me where I can do that?

fuzzfactor 6y ago

>It's the windmills. No, its not the windmills! It's the Bozos. They're going to goof things up and they know it so they need you to be _tilting at windmills_ in other directions for distraction.

HNfriend234 6y ago

It is like that because of social media and news outlets that basically produce "confirmation bias" news that has no other intention but to reinforce one's own existing beliefs. Both sides do it so it is not a partisan issue. This is what I think is actually behind the reason that the USA is so divided now and each side of the debate is so entranced in the typical political discourse.