Progressives (Liberals)

Even McKibben struggles for an adequate vocabulary to describe the duplicity of oil companies: “There should be a word for when you commit treason against an entire planet.” As early as 1977, one of Exxon’s own scientists explained to the company’s executives that their products were causing a greenhouse effect, and that there would be only “five to ten years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical.” By 1982, McKibben writes, “the company’s scientists concluded that heading off global warming would ‘require major reductions in fossil fuel combustion’” or risk “potentially catastrophic events.” Exxon used predictions of ice retreat to lengthen their drilling season in the Arctic, and raised drilling platforms to accommodate sea-level rise. He recounts the deliberate strategy of oil executives and their pet politicians to, as one Exxon official put it, “emphasize the uncertainty” of climate science. “I’ve lived the last thirty years inside that lie,” McKibben realizes, “engaged in an endless debate over whether global warming was ‘real’—a debate in which both sides knew the answer from the beginning.”

He gives the most succinct explanation I’ve ever read of how the Koch brothers and their ilk triumphed. Another character who emerges in this section, and haunts the rest of the book, is Ayn Rand. McKibben’s description of her backstory and the outsized scope of her influence on so many of today’s politicians will shock some readers into taking their tattered copies of The Fountainhead to the nearest hazardous waste disposal.

Equally cogent, and creepy, is his survey of the race for technological mastery over our natural limitations (including death) by engineering human babies using the gene-editing technology CRISPR, melding our minds with artificial intelligence and with hardware more resilient than our shambling bodies, or simply letting robots handle the hard stuff. Every day some trending new gizmo or beguiling advance distracts us from the climate disaster by promising to make our lives easier, even as our future grows shorter.

Looks like the tide has become a tsunami.

There were 4 million views within 48 hours.

We’re finding conversations all over the web

by people who were astonished by his opinions and policies—who say they’re voting for Bernie now.

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and [Ayn Rand's] Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

Few candidates have loyal small-dollar donor bases
Compare how candidates stack up in small-dollar donors — and how many of their donors overlap

Quote:

Looks like the tide has become a tsunami.

Nah, it doesn't really look like that.

Quote:

Most assuredly when you have your head jammed in the dirt and the added assist of a sign on your ass for passers-by stating, “Don’t you dare tell me anything that disturbs my myopic, tribalistic world view!!” Yes, I am sure I know what it looks like to you.

Quote:

There were 4 million views within 48 hours.

As a stand-alone stat, that doesn't tell us much of anything. What's the norm? His earlier interview with Elon Musk now has 24.5 million views.

Quote:

You’re trying really hard to get the facts, aren’t you!? Musk was an outlier. Bernie currently holds the 6th best viewing...on a libertarian dude’s popular podcast.

Quote:

We’re finding conversations all over the web

And who is "we"? Where is "all over"? What meaning does that have? There are, after all, tips on how to install a toilet all over the web.

Quote:

Here’s what it means. https://jacobinmag.com/2019/08/bernie-sanders-joe-rogan-experience-podcast
There is a clear difference between appearing alongside a right-leaning host in order to agree with their right-leaning views and doing so with the goal of persuading their audience. Despite Rogan’s politics, the Vermont senator arguably got a fairer hearing than he typically gets from major cable networks and, with more than an hour at his disposal, he was able to use the interview decisively to his advantage — delivering his key ideas and tying them together near the episode’s end with a pro–working class message contrasting his politics with Trump’s:

[My administration] is going to be filled with the best people, often from the working class itself, from the trade union movement, people who are gonna help us create policies that work for workers and not just the billionaire class.

By appearing on the show, Sanders successfully exposed Rogan’s audience to left-wing ideas many have probably never encountered before, without the compromising filter usually applied to them by the mainstream media or the typical bad-faith actors on the right.

This becomes clear from even a perfunctory survey of the episode’s comment section, which suggests that Sanders both reached and persuaded listeners who might not regularly encounter his arguments, or who would otherwise be inclined toward hostility.

A few samples:

“This was pretty great. Learned more about Bernie from this than any other source in the past 5+ years . . .”

“I consider myself a Republican, but I actually agree with a lot of what Bernie said here.”

“I have changed my mind on this man. Really great interview. This man needs to be heard.”

“I’ve watched media tell me this guy was a nut for years. After this interview I feel like he might be onto something.”

“I consider myself the exact opposite of a socialist, but Bernie is onto something taxing Wall Street 0.5% for every trade. It would create a more stable stock market as well as creating more revenue for this country . . . Plus, we already bailed them out sooooooo . . .”

“I was on the fence about which Dem I was voting for till I watched this video. Thanks Joe for asking great questions and giving Bernie time to answer thoroughly.”

“Bernie is only labeled as radical by a hostile media bought by the same special interests he wants to remove from power.”

Quote:

by people who were astonished by his opinions and policies—who say they’re voting for Bernie now.

Good, dependable, scientific data there.

I understand you are doing Bernie PR but what you've just written is careless or deceitful.

Quote:

If you want me hounding you every time you share an opinion or an observation
without scientific data back up, I’m your huckleberry. Ridiculous hypocritical Centrist.

We’re finding conversations all over the web