Monbiot: Left Wing Greens are the Scapegoats….
Being green isn’t a license for name-calling, exaggerating, yelling, or dehumanizing.
Left: President Trump. Right: George Monbiot Explaining his Climate Theories. Screenshot from Novara Media
Monbiot: Left Wing Greens are the Scapegoats of People like Trump
16 hours agoEric Worrall 110 Comments
Essay by Eric Worrall
According to Monbiot, the US culture of frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger, compulsive behaviour and disregard for the environment leads to greens being scapegoated.
To beat Trump, we need to know why Americans keep voting for him. Psychologists may have the answer
George Monbiot
US culture is an incubator of ‘extrinsic values’. Nobody embodies them like the Republican frontrunner
Mon 29 Jan 2024 17.00 AEDT
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People at the extrinsic end of the spectrum are more attracted to prestige, status, image, fame, power and wealth. They are strongly motivated by the prospect of individual reward and praise. They are more likely to objectify and exploit other people, to behave rudely and aggressively and to dismiss social and environmental impacts. They have little interest in cooperation or community. People with a strong set of extrinsic values are more likely to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger and compulsive behaviour.
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If, by contrast, people live in a country in which no one becomes destitute, in which social norms are characterised by kindness, empathy, community and freedom from want and fear, their values are likely to shift towards the intrinsic end. This process is known as policy feedback, or the “values ratchet”. The values ratchet operates at the societal and the individual level: a strong set of extrinsic values often develops as a result of insecurity and unfulfilled needs. These extrinsic values then generate further insecurity and unfulfilled needs.
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When a society valorises status, money, power and dominance, it is bound to generate frustration. It is mathematically impossible for everyone to be number one. The more the economic elites grab, the more everyone else must lose. Someone must be blamed for the ensuing disappointment. In a culture that worships winners, it can’t be them. It must be those evil people pursuing a kinder world, in which wealth is distributed, no one is forgotten and communities and the living planet are protected. Those who have developed a strong set of extrinsic values will vote for the person who represents them, the person who has what they want. Trump. And where the US goes, the rest of us follow.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/29/donald-trump-americans-us-culture-republican
I agree with Monbiot that left wing greens are blamed for a lot of what is wrong with today’s world, but that is because the economically illiterate policies promoted by left wing greens have repeatedly created a serious mess.
Just look at the grid stability situation in Canada, where Alberta narrowly avoided power blackouts because Saskatchewan’s fossil fuel plants generated enough excess power for Alberta to keep the lights on, after the wind and solar systems simultaneously failed during an extreme cold snap. If Saskatchewan hadn’t pushed back against Trudeau’s green energy policies, well I’ve never experienced -40C (-40F) with no power and no home heating, but I’m guessing it would have been unpleasant.
Or look at today’s gasoline pump price and home heating cost crisis in the USA, caused by the Biden administration cancelling pipelines, blocking fossil fuel leases and harassing fossil fuel companies, all in the name of saving the planet.
As for Monbiot promoting the politics of wealth redistribution and equality as a path to a better society, that really doesn’t deserve an answer, given the 10s of millions of people murdered by left wing zealots in the 20th century, during various brutal attempts to create more equality. Or who knows, maybe if we give it one more try, we’ll get it right this time? Do I need a /sarc tag?
It’s really rather sad seeing George Monbiot degenerate into writing something so hateful. I seriously considered ignoring this outburst, but Monbiot still has a significant following of people who take his rants seriously.
There was a time Monbiot wrote a few sensible pieces, like his eloquent defence of nuclear power, though from memory he later partly walked that back.
A lot of Monbiot’s recent work in my opinion has degenerated into vicious spitballs aimed at people who don’t embrace his unforgiving and intolerant brand of radical green socialism, like the article quoted above.
The likes of Monbiot can't get past the idea that feel good policy can also just be bad policy. Like most on the Left, he views Trump as some sort of Republican snake charmer and looks no deeper. Trumpers are just blinded by his power. It's far more complicated than that.