Transcription / Alt Text:
Panel one:
[off-screen] Fox News: Taylor Swift's plane is emitting soo much carbon
Angry Goose: Why are carbon emissions bad?
Panel 2:
[Man labeled Fox News being chased]
Goose: Explain why carbon emissions are bad, coward!!!
This isnt a good argument. For Fox News carbon emissions are irrelevant or good or whatever. But since Taylor Swift is saying she cares about the environment and according to her carbon emissions are bad for the environment, it is hypocritical to use a private jet.
The problem Fox News have with Taylor Swift isnt her carbon emissions, it is her hypocrisy.
The problem I have with the "hypocrisy" argument is that, here, it's used as a cheap attack on the messenger.
As in the old meme:
(poor peasant doing labor: "we should improve society somewhat", grinning contemporary person: "yet you participate in society, curious! I am very intelligent.")
I can accept it when influential people, even those that cause a whole lot of emissions themselves, advocate for climate programs. We won't get anywhere if, whoever wants to talk about the environment, first has to become a cave dweller and give up their reach before they're allowed to speak up.
On the other hand, when Fox News, a channel that generally panders to the coal lobby, car industry and oil barons, suddenly becomes concerned about someone's CO2 emissions just to serve up another smear, that is hypocrisy, plain and simple.
Nope. A lot of us see the problem as people saying "we need to do X, but not me". So much of the issue is people admitting there is a problem but denying that they have any impact. It's always someone's else's problem.
When she’s on tour, the jet when she’s touring on serves the entertainment of lots of people, not just her. In the same way a venue does. When divided among lots of people it’s meaningless fraction of the transportation of the audience.
I also think worrying about a few people is a way to discredit climate change concerns.
Regulations and investing in better energy sources are what matters. I don’t give a fuck about a few rich fucks with yachts and airplanes. I care about policy and how society distributes resources and energy.
All aviation accounts for less than 2% of emissions. Private jets are a tiny fraction of that. But now we’re talking about that instead of the actual issue. This serves climate change deniers. This serves the Republican agenda, and the pertrol agenda. You’re doing that right now.
The problem Fox News have with Taylor Swift isnt her carbon emissions, it is her hypocrisy.
I mean, no. If she didn't fly on a private jet, they'd find something else to ding her on. Their problem with her is that she's not entirely on their side.
I would accept that as a rationale only if they also held regressives to the same standards that regressives are pretending to have. There are no Fox News segments like, "allegedly 'pro-life' Texas Repubs urge for entangling humans in razor wire, extrajudicial executions by drowning."
But actually, what they're doing is ad hominem. This is not, "Swift is behaving contrary to her message and needs to stop," it is, "Swift is behaving contrary to her message and therefore climate change is a global hoax so that 'they' can force you to eat bugs and have an electric car with a remote shutoff."
It is ad-hominem to start with and hypocrisy and propaganda all the way down to the core. Fox News in a nutshell.
You don't get to pick and choose what Fox News has said in the past. Their position is that climate change is vastly exaggerated and largely a hoax, and depending who you talk to they might have a stronger view.
You don't get to forget what they said in the past and present and choose a totally new position, where the main focus is on hypocrisy. Because if Fox News believes what it has said for the last 20 years, then the actual reasoning is that Taylor Swift is acting hypocritically but it's irrelevant. In other words, if they want to have integrity they would need to undercut their own story.
You personally are free to have a position that purely focuses on hypocrisy if you haven't already made public statements on climate change. But Fox News is stuck with positions it has already endorsed and continues to endorse. I mean we know that Fox News has no credibility but if you thought that they should, then this is something they can't avoid.
I hate Fox but they have a point. Preaching about climate change (good) doesn't excuse using a private jet (bad). And obviously the hypocricy makes it worse.
Greta Thunberg made the trip to the US for some climate summin via sailboat. Not to show that it can be done - but to show how absolutely impractical it is. Climate action cannot be about individual responsibility - sometimes we need private jets.
So the rational action would be to start a massive development effort to develop jets that are slower and run on hydrogen fuel cells or something. And find ways to generate hydrogen fuel without carbon. And then distribute and regulate jets.
But that's basically a planned economy, a taboo word to think or say in mainstream. Instead any small advancement is patented which raises the cost of it to maximize profit.
So no, pointing out Taylor's swift as hypocrite is not a good point, it is indeed propaganda to avoid sensible action on climate change. Of course it's way to late now so it doesn't really matter any more.
Do we need private jets for individuals to take on a whim? Maybe we need private jets for government officials specifically traveling to do work on behalf of the government.
No 'sometimes anybody needs private jets'. Fly commercial en masse to at least make it one flight instead of 300 separate ones. In this age of very good remote video calling there is no situation where somebody needs to be somewhere else within 2 hours to the point it is worth taking a private jet for all of the relevant reasons we're concerned with. There were commercial empires spanning the globe long before the internet or manned flight existed and they arguably did far better than today's 'nimble' corporations do. BS rhetoric for people to suggest they 'need' to fly private at all.
she's told her viewers to vote democrat and that she can't contain her political opinions any longer because republicans have gotten so fucked etc. etc., which blows up due to her being a celebrity woman that people like finding reasons to be controversial about
Without context this link is just bad. Plant growth will not reduce CO2 levels because biosphere is temporary store or carbon (since it is a part of the carbon cycle)
We are putting carbon (into the atmosphere) that was previously buried. So putting a tiny bit of it back into plants doesn't help because:
those plants will die and release the carbon back
the number of plants added is inconsequential compared to the deforestation
the number of plants needed to offset additional carbon is humongous