It follows Republican outrage over Mamdani offering the same heatwave advice as everyone else.
The US Department of Energy reportedly deleted about 6,000 pages related to energy conservation as a historic heatwave tears across the country.
The deletion was suspiciously timed, following Republican outrage over Mayor Zohran Mamdani asking New Yorkers to help reduce strain on the grid by setting their AC to 78 degrees. Republicans like Ted Cruz (who has famously fled severe weather in his home state), Nikki Haley, and Representative Nancy Mace (South Carolina) quickly pounced, framing the request as socialism and an act of war on women in menopause (the Republican Party is notoriously friendly to women’s health).
Of course, this is pretty standard advice during a heatwave. It was the official stance of the Department of Energy that Americans should set their thermostats between 75 and 78 degrees, and Republican governors in deep red states like Texas have issued the same advice in the past — including current governor Greg Abbott.
The fuck?
Read it again. Does anything stand out?
Clearly that’s snark.
They dropped their /s
For fucks sake do you really need one?
At this point, unfortunately yes. Even if it’s only to stop dog whistling being hidden behind “it was only a joke” or “it was obviously sarcastic”.
It also helps non native English speakers.
Nah. Fuck that. You sacrifice nuance, complexity, bandwidth, and depth of communication? That’s everything the fascists want.
It’s akin to clear cutting the forest around a castle. We lose something, but it helps draw a line in the sand. At this point, we need some sort of defence line.
I reserve the right to believe what people say. I also reserve the right to not roll that back when they say it was “just a joke”.
Yes. Defend yourself from fascism not by immersing yourself in humanity, not with defense in depth, not with a robust diligently humanized intellect, not with art and philosophy, not with deeper knowledge and complexity and communication, not by becoming something they cannot understand predict or fight, but with the shallow aesthetics and quick reactions they’ve been pushing on us since the 30s! Death to the enemy! Exterminate them! That’ll fix everything!
And how does making sarcasm explicitly obvious affect any of those?
Couldn’t possibly.