Naomi Klein explains how Climate Alarmism being used to Nationalize Energy

[lawrocket 3]

http://grist.org/climate-energy/naomi-klein-on-the-power-of-fossil-fuel-divestment/

From the piece:

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Another point I would make, [about] carbon pricing, is that when we make the argument that this is a rogue sector, that their business plan is at odds with life on earth, we are creating an intellectual and political space where it becomes much easier to tax those profits, to increase royalties, and even to nationalize these companies. This is not just about the fact that we want to separate ourselves from these companies, it’s also that we have a right to those profits. If those profits are so illegitimate that Harvard shouldn’t be invested in them, they’re also so illegitimate that taxpayers have a right to them to pay for a transition away from fossil fuels, and to pay the bills for a crisis created by this sector. It’s not just about dissociating ourselves from their profits, but potentially getting a much larger piece of them.

Plenty of people here have made the argument that for many, climate alarmism is being used as an effort to further socialistic causes. That it is a power grab. A money grab.

Unfortunately, Naomi Klein has confirmed that it is exactly a goal. These companies make money. It's interesting the way the socialist mind thinks. Those profits are so bad that nobody should have access to them. Except for the lefties, for whom those profits are legitimate and good if they go to them.

Naomi Klein is a valuable resource. She is unfiltered and has little reason to think that this should be kept as inside knowledge.

There are plenty of people who are legitimately concerned about carbon emissions who aren't commies or socialists. Who have no ambitions of turning the electricity generating capacity of the country into their own playground.

But many of the powerful do. Those who play roles in policy making want that money for themselves. Recall the warnings of billvon and kallend about trusting someone when their paycheck is involved. For those like Klein and McKibben this is certainly and investment backed expectation.

What do they want? Money. They want those profits and those companies. For them.

I think the mainstream environmental movement would be wise to distance itself from this. But for those who think that there is nothing socialist at all in climate alarm, be advised that a couple of the loudest voices are proudly announcing what they want to do. Nationalize industries. Take profits not for others but for them to hand out to whomever they think worthy.

Yes, this worries me.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[quade 4]

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What do they want? Money. They want those profits and those companies. For them.

Not to put too fine of a point on it, but even if this hypothesis were correct (which has not been proven in any way by her words on the subject), how precisely would that differ from what the Koch Brothers, Exxon, Arabco, OPEC and all the others in the "old energy" fossil fuels do?

You don't fear fossil fuels. Why fear a change to other forms of energy?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[lawrocket 3]

quade

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What do they want? Money. They want those profits and those companies. For them.

Not to put too fine of a point on it, but even if this hypothesis were correct (which has not been proven in any way by her words on the subject), how precisely would that differ from what the Koch Brothers, Exxon, Arabco, OPEC and all the others in the "old energy" fossil fuels do?

You don't fear fossil fuels. Why fear a change to other forms of energy?

I don't fear fossil fuels.

I also don't have any more problem with the Kochs or Exxon than I do with Soros. They use their own money.

What Klein and McKibben are suggesting is something different. The petrochemical industry is immoral. Bogeymen are immoral (yep. Framed in terms of morality like any good fag hatin' Christian) and therefore must be contained. Because they are immoral they must be controlled. The way to control any company is to take all of its profits and assets. Therefore, by use of the power of government they will take the assets and profits from the companies. Then the government will step in because the companies can no longer operate. The government has nationalizes the industry.

But Klein said something that I had really not understood. They do not want the immediate death of the petrochemical industry. No. The profits are immoral for everyone else except the enlightened. And the enlightened know that the profits could be put to something much better. They want the company profits for themselves.

This is the part that is ingenious. The petrochemical industry is horrible. Unless they run it! At worst, they want to run the industry for a few decades until something better comes along. Picture Animal Farm. Boxer was the strength that made the farm run. He was worked until he was no longer useful. Then sent to be rendered for glue.

There it is. This is what worries me. Klein does my suggest that good environmentalists buy stock in Exxon and take over the board to make the company environmentally responsible. Rather, they suggest that the government, after a long campaign to make the public hate the industry, take the money and then take it over.

This is worrisome. Klein is the one I pointed out previously who suggested that the burden of scientific proof with carbon pollution must be lowered in order to get the policy goals accomplished.

The pieces fit. Klein is discussing a long term campaign for doing this. Get the people to hate the companies and it makes it easier to destroy them.

As I said, most environmentalists don't think this way. But those who are the figureheads of it in terms of making policy have a whole lot to gain. They need merely invest time and rhetoric to put themselves in power.

Well meaning dictators are to be feared.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

And how is Klein going to accomplish this?

Or you are assuming she is vocalizing something a lot of people are keeping as a secret?

[jakee 1,610]

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But Klein said something that I had really not understood. They do not want the immediate death of the petrochemical industry. No. The profits are immoral for everyone else except the enlightened. And the enlightened know that the profits could be put to something much better. They want the company profits for themselves.

LOL.

You're quite the polemicist.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[lawrocket 3]

SkyDekker

And how is Klein going to accomplish this?

Or you are assuming she is vocalizing something a lot of people are keeping as a secret?

No. She isn't. As I stated in the post, most people are in it because they care. Kinda like most Christians are fine with others marrying whomever they want, etc.

But there are those who see it in different terms and as a vehicle to accomplish other aims. Klein, like it or not, has held some sway. She is among the more influential people out there as a thinker. And she really does have some interesting things to say (see Shock Doctrine). I don't always disagree with her. She's right that disasters are excellent opportunities for unscrupulous capitalists to move in to foment huge changes. She focuses her studies on use of disasters to make capitalist reforms.

I have little doubt that she can see how to utilize this for the other side. She says that disasters are often manufactured in order to encourage public desire for change.

For a person who wrote about how the Iraq War put forth a massive change to not consider how to use the same tactics for different aims is somewhat easy to see.

I don't think she's keeping a secret. I do think that she is reflecting something underlying. Most people want to move away from carbon fuels because it's the right thing to do. A few want to look toward is as an opportunity to make a fortune.

And there are those (not many in number in powerful positions) who would seek to exploit it as a way to change the system.

Don't read more into it than that. But those who think it's ridiculous that there are people who are interested in changing the American system and exploiting environmentalism as a way to do it.

My wife is hotter than your wife.