Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Cringe

I try to maintain a high tolerance for liberal cringe, as it's usually harmless, but the trend of celebrities and others posting things like, "I WOULD GLADLY PAY HIGHER GAS PRICES FOR THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE" is pointless moral superiority preening.

Paying higher gas prices does not help the people of Ukraine. Higher gas prices are not, at least the moment, an inevitable consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine or our efforts to put an end to it. It's the level of "sacrifice" which means nothing to people with money, but a reasonable amount to those without. In other words, you're just claiming (incorrectly) that The War Effort (whatever it is) should be paid by the poorest of us and people should STOP COMPLAINING.

Stop it. The distribution of the costs - the price paid - of everything is a policy choice. You aren't going to make people happy by trying to shame them like this. The "economy" issue, whatever its merits, isn't going to be won pretending $4.50 gas is our little Victory Gardens or whatever.

Also, ban cars.