Collective Un-comfort

I think the word is out that we’ve been seeing Arctic temperatures here in the midwest. Last night, the Michigan Governor of Michigan, along with the gas monopoly, pegged this “emergency” message to all of our phones.

So it’s entertaining to watch this unfurl. Since folks in Michigan and Minnesota (anywhere else?) were zapped with “emergency” messages to their cell phones telling them to turn down their thermostats, I’ve been reading the Facebook threads of all the various government and media outlets running this story with supportive pleas to “share the pain” and join the obedient tool caucus.

What’s interesting – and predictable – is all of the busybody citizen-Hitlers running amok on these threads, playing the part of useful idiot, yapping at others in comments threads, like old schoolmarms, wagging their shame-finger at others, while arguing an entirely *subjective* issue (whether one should be “cold” or not). Everyone has to chime in with their virtue-signaling, exclaiming the glories of keeping their thermostat at 59 degrees. And of course, all of these mini-Hitlers are loaded with “expert” advice for others who have a different opinion and therefore don’t immediately subject themselves to the collective whim-of-the-moment.

Energy conservation, when needed, is one thing, and people – generally – will do this on their own, without shaming and nagging from government overlords, energy monopolists, and the citizen tyrants who demand that their fellow citizens kneel in obedience to every government decree.

Remember Obama’s words: “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.”

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8:08 am on January 31, 2019