5 ms·

I live in Berkeley, it’s a nice place, great food, a lot of people who care about their neighborhoods. But I hate that the elected officials here feel the need

I live in Berkeley, it’s a nice place, great food, a lot of people who care about their neighborhoods. But I hate that the elected officials here feel the need to get involved in issues beyond their scope. Last week I was emailed by the city schools that they want to take the lead on… slavery reparations. What? Leave aside if reparations is right or not right, why the heck does the schoolboard think solving this problem is part of their job? It’s like deciding the school district will do ABI. It looks like resume building to me.

monero-xmr 3y ago
I live in a similarly “highly active” citizen government area, and the parking committee will issue proclamations on support for international wars. It’s just government nerds with too much money and time trying to play Model UN. I would say it’s harmless except there is always some hundred million dollar bond they are proposing.
hnav 3y ago
In my opinion that attitude permeates the whole of society, nowhere is the inherent irony of the moniker "liberal" being applied to aspiring dictators as apparent as it is in Berkeley.
- akiselev 3y ago
  "Aspiring dictators in Berkeley" What permeates society is chronic histrionics.
  - hnav 3y ago
    A tool the aforementioned aspiring dictators often wield, often in the context of a town hall, far exaggerating the effects of something they don't like. At the very least let's do a CEQA study first, ok?
runarberg 3y ago
I feel like that is only natural after a prolonged inaction by the elected official upper in the hierarchy. Climate change is only a world ending type of emergency, we are already at 1.2 degrees and are heading towards 3-4, a lot of people are already dying and the death count will grow exponentially every decade as inaction continues. Perhaps your elected officials are simply desperate. And given the severity of the situation, I wish more elected officials were many times more desperate than Berkeley’s.
- hnav 3y ago
  Maybe they're arrogant, they're so convinced that they're at the center of the universe that they forget that they preside over a town of 100k in a world where billions of people are coming out of poverty and wanting increased standards of life. Above everything they're so arrogant that they failed as politicians: they misjudged how much clout they have in their own town of 100k.
  - runarberg 3y ago
    Perhaps so, but again, both elected officials that preside over the state of California, and elected official that preside over the country of USA have repeatedly failed to act. And the climate emergency keeps getting more and more desperate. This is the only power they have, and apparently the court has ruled they don’t even hold that power. You call it arrogance. I call a weak attempt while the system at large fails everybody, in other words, desperate is still my leading theory.
  - cyberax 3y ago
    Heck, Berkeley has passed laws that outlaw anything "nuclear" within the city limits: https://berkeley.municipal.codes/BMC/12.90 https://berkeley.municipal.codes/BMC/12.90 This includes irradiated food (e.g. many spices).
    - TheSpiceIsLife 3y ago
      Does that include smoke detectors?
RickJWagner 3y ago
It's an extended form of virtue signaling.

monero-xmr 3y ago

I live in a similarly “highly active” citizen government area, and the parking committee will issue proclamations on support for international wars. It’s just government nerds with too much money and time trying to play Model UN. I would say it’s harmless except there is always some hundred million dollar bond they are proposing.

hnav 3y ago

In my opinion that attitude permeates the whole of society, nowhere is the inherent irony of the moniker "liberal" being applied to aspiring dictators as apparent as it is in Berkeley.

akiselev 3y ago
"Aspiring dictators in Berkeley" What permeates society is chronic histrionics.
- hnav 3y ago
  A tool the aforementioned aspiring dictators often wield, often in the context of a town hall, far exaggerating the effects of something they don't like. At the very least let's do a CEQA study first, ok?

runarberg 3y ago

I feel like that is only natural after a prolonged inaction by the elected official upper in the hierarchy. Climate change is only a world ending type of emergency, we are already at 1.2 degrees and are heading towards 3-4, a lot of people are already dying and the death count will grow exponentially every decade as inaction continues. Perhaps your elected officials are simply desperate. And given the severity of the situation, I wish more elected officials were many times more desperate than Berkeley’s.

hnav 3y ago
Maybe they're arrogant, they're so convinced that they're at the center of the universe that they forget that they preside over a town of 100k in a world where billions of people are coming out of poverty and wanting increased standards of life. Above everything they're so arrogant that they failed as politicians: they misjudged how much clout they have in their own town of 100k.
- runarberg 3y ago
  Perhaps so, but again, both elected officials that preside over the state of California, and elected official that preside over the country of USA have repeatedly failed to act. And the climate emergency keeps getting more and more desperate. This is the only power they have, and apparently the court has ruled they don’t even hold that power. You call it arrogance. I call a weak attempt while the system at large fails everybody, in other words, desperate is still my leading theory.
- cyberax 3y ago
  Heck, Berkeley has passed laws that outlaw anything "nuclear" within the city limits: https://berkeley.municipal.codes/BMC/12.90 https://berkeley.municipal.codes/BMC/12.90 This includes irradiated food (e.g. many spices).
  - TheSpiceIsLife 3y ago
    Does that include smoke detectors?

RickJWagner 3y ago

It's an extended form of virtue signaling.