The ridiculous efforts to gin up right-wing outrage continues apace. The latest are the proposed regulations to make washing machines more energy and water efficient. Naturally, this has been seized on by right-wing media to suggest that our clothes will come out dirtier. This follows the general manufactured anger over similar developments like low-flush toilets. These are being used as examples of the ‘wokeness’ that is destroying the American way of life. They are even blaming the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on the management being more focused on being woke than financial matters. Yes, really.
Seth Meyers had a good segment on the attempt to make washing machines and dishwashers the latest examples of government tyranny..
The Biden administration is currently proposing changes to the clean water standards in order to reduce the amount of so-called ‘forever chemicals’ because of their adverse health effects.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed limiting the amount of harmful “forever chemicals” in drinking water to the lowest level that tests can detect, a long-awaited protection the agency said will save thousands of lives and prevent serious illnesses, including cancer.
The plan marks the first time the EPA has proposed regulating a toxic group of compounds that are widespread, dangerous and expensive to remove from water. PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated substances, don’t degrade in the environment and are linked to a broad range of health issues, including low birthweight babies and kidney cancer. The agency says drinking water is a significant source of PFAS exposure for people.
“The science is clear that long-term exposure to PFAS is linked to significant health risks,” Radhika Fox, assistant EPA administrator for water, said in an interview.
Fox called the federal proposal a “transformational change” for improving the safety of drinking water in the United States. The agency estimates the rule could reduce PFAS exposure for nearly 100 million Americans, decreasing rates of cancer, heart attacks and birth complications.
I am bracing myself for new scaremongering about how the government is coming to take our water away.
The thing is that people can compare this scaremongering with their own experience. My own toilets and energy-saving household appliances work perfectly well as I’m sure other people’s do too. I wonder if there is some eye-rolling by even MAGAhats when right-wing commentators get all apoplectic about toilets not flushing, their clothes and dishes not getting clean, and their food ruined by cooking on electric stoves, when their own appliances seem to be working just fine. Or is there no limit to their ability to not allow their lived experience to contradict what they hear from their chosen media that fits with their ideological expectations?
I am bracing myself for new scaremongering about how the government is coming to take our water away.
The planet’s supply of fresh water is very close to being over-subscribed. Maybe they’re trying to get people used to the idea of water rationing!
Quick answer? No. No, there is no bottom here, it’s morons all the way down.
I’ve seen the equivalent of a MAGA-type here in Canada respond to news of a double stabbing incident with “welcome to Trudeau’s Canda.” As if the PMO has anything to do with local law enforcement. Next, he’ll get his car stuck in a snowbank and blame our “damn woke immigration policy!”
No.
Next question?
My favorite was the MAGAphony who claimed that because the Biden administration finally allowed Medicare to negotiate the price of insulin resulting in a huge decrease, that that was Biden “cutting back” on Medicare. Something that absolutely benefits literally every American (except for shareholders of big pharma) is somehow a bad thing.
I prefer MAIA -- Make America Ignorant Again.
Pierce R. Butler was faster, but he forgot to give the reference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
We had similar lunacy in the UK: Jacob Rees-Mogg listed escaping the EU’s tyranny of power restrictions for vacuum cleaners as one of the benefits of Brexit. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-rees-mogg-vacuum-cleaners-b2091362.html
You can’t cook Chinese on an electric hob, Mano.
I walked by my MAGA neighbor’s house the other day. He was out front raking or something. I nodded. He asked: “How you doing with that Covid?”
I said fine, we hadn’t gotten it yet. He said that he and his wife had it. They did not get seriously ill because they took horse medicine. I assume he meant Ivermectin.
I said that that or a sugar pill would work about the same. He thought I was endorsing his choice! He smiled and gave me a thumb’s up.
Hmm, on what side of the issue of per- and polyfluorinated substances would Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper fall?
😉
MAGAworld doesn’t give a shit about “truth” for “falsehood”. All MAGAworld cares about is whether or not Dear Leader, the Angry Cheeto, spoke for or against whatever-it-is. Hence, there is no bottom.
@#8,
This article explains how to cook Chinese food on a glass top electric stove. It says that you must use a flat-bottomed wok.
Honestly, one of the biggest drivers of MAGA-land, especially in instances like this with washing machines, gas stoves, toilets, and the like, is the toddler-esque ‘You can’t tell me what to do!’ attitude. Certainly that was one of Trump’s bigger drivers. It’s not about being right, it’s about feeling like nobody else is allowed to act like they’re smarter or better than you.
Granted, with toilets there was a problem to start with. Low-flush toilets can be made in two ways: the cheap way, which just involves using the standard toilet with a smaller effective tank, and the proper way, which involves redesigning the tank and bowl to better improve the actual water flow rate to keep the same force even with less water behind it (which has several sub-methods, of course). When use of low-flush toilets was first mandated, and contractors building new homes were given the option of using the cheap way or the way that actually worked, most of them chose the cheap way, which helped lead to the general assumption that all low-flush toilets were cheap and barely-working things. The fact that the original laws only mandated flush amounts rather than flow rates (and thus allowed contractors to pass off non-working equipment and claim that’s what the law required them to use) is one of the events that helped form the attitude leading into this of ‘they’re trying to force us to use sub-standard things’.