Prop HH failing: a shovelful of sand under our keel. Environmental Hegemony by CPR News' Sam Brasch. And the Plow That Broke The Plains.
My take on Prop HH failing.
I'll keep this short because you can find all the Prop HH related content you can stand (and probably better quality) on any number of places around the internet.
Having a couple days under my belt to think it over and having seen and read more than my share on commentary on it here is my take.
I would say that I am probably a little more cautious in my thoughts on what this means than Mr. Wadhams in the video below.
A couple weeks prior to the election, I was talking with a friend and had said that I thought the results of Prop HH would be a good indicator of the "soul" of Colorado. In other words, passing or failing, Prop HH's performance at the polls would be a decent indicator of whether Colorado had fully embraced California's culture or whether there was some little grain, some kernel, of Western values and spirit left.
In my view, this is a solidly blue state now. That feels to me as solid a fact as stone. It will not look anything like it used to prior to the "Blueprint"** and the massive influx of people from more left-leaning states.
This reality doesn't mean that there can be no balance, that there can be no sharing of power, and it doesn't mean it will be this way forever. I take the complete and utter failure of Prop HH as evidence.
There is a movie about a German U-boat crew in WWII called "Das Boot". Skipping a ton of context, the boat crew gets attacked and starts to sink. The sub is going deeper and deeper and you anticipate that it will soon hit crush depth and implode.
But it doesn't. The boat hits the ocean floor. The captain remarks that God tossed a shovelful of dirt under their keel to save them.
That's how I feel with Prop HH passing: I feel like there is a shovelful of dirt under my keel and that this state hasn't completely sunk.
As in the movie, there is still a long way to go to get back to normal, but there is still hope.
**The book I mean: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Blueprint.html?id=tyOng_zxuw0C
Environmental Hegemony at CPR News.
By a strict dictionary definition, hegemony is an attempt by one group to exert influence over another. Unlike brute force, however, hegemony carries with it the connotation that this influence is exerted by the use of legitimating norms and beliefs. It can be taken to be a mix of both coercion and consent.
Put in yet another way, hegemony can be thought of as one group trying to set what we would refer to as "common sense", whether this common is common or not.
I have noticed this creeping into media over the last few years and some outlets and reporters are worse than others.
CPR News' climate activist (oops, "reporter") Samuel Brasch recently put out quite an overt example of what I mean. I linked to it below, but the relevant part for this post is attached.
I highlighted the parts I mean by underlining in blue.
Sure, didn't you know it? Everyone KNOWS that we have to shift from fossil fuels. All of them. From now til forever. This is, in fact, such a surety that it's not even up for consideration or discussion.
Also, golly, you'd have to be some kind of kook if you don't (or can't?) understand how gas stoves harm people. Research has shown it people! Ironclad, unassailable, beyond-question or doubt research.
This is hegemony. This is propaganda.
This is the setting of common sense and does not belong in any kind of report that would label itself as news.
https://www.cpr.org/2023/11/01/xcel-energy-pressured-to-leave-american-gas-association/
Another example?
The claim I make in the post above about Mr. Brasch, his reporting, and his news outlet is a big one and not one I make lightly.
Allow me to shore up why I make this claim with another bit of evidence.
The article below is about air sampling Mr. Brasch did along with a postdoc from CU** on the new bridge/park that caps what is now the sunken portion of I-70 through Denver.
I have made multiple attempts through both email and social media to contact Mr. Brasch to get his data.
I have also made attempts to email the postdoc at CU for same. What I heard back from him was that he helped in set up and help analyzing. He didn't keep the data, he didn't analyze it.
I am not looking to refute anyone's conclusions. I'm not looking to support them. I just want to see the numbers.
So far I have had no response from Brasch. I ask you, are these the actions of people who value transparency? Are they the ethics you would think any researcher or journalist would have? If you read the article do you find a note anywhere in it on process (the fact that the postdoc merely helped set up and offered advice leaving the rest to the reporter)?
Thus the claim that what he's about is propaganda. Propagandists hide data. Propagandists insist on a one-way channel of information and do not tolerate independent investigation.
**If you read the article and read my earlier post on Health Impact Assessments it will be familiar. One of the "references" linked to in the article was said assessment; this article was why I started reading it to begin with.
https://www.cpr.org/2023/10/30/colorado-built-a-park-over-i-70-to-contain-pollution-is-the-air-safe-to-breathe/
The Plow That Broke the Plains
Last post til Sunday and you know what means: something interesting, a curiosity and not related to (current) politics.
I recently listened to the book "The Worst Hard Time" (I read it in book form a long time ago and had a yen to reread but decided to listen to it instead). If you've not read it, I highly recommend it.
The book is a short look at the Dust Bowl that ravaged the arid Southern Plains (including parts of Colorado: I remember the stories my grandmother told me of when they lived near Holly, CO after moving from Missouri). In the book the author discusses a government-produced (and paid for**) movie about the Dust Bowl titled "The Plow That Broke The Plains".
I forget if I tried to find the movie when I read this the first time, but I did make a point of looking for it this go 'round. Found it on YouTube and thought I'd share.
The video's linked below. It, like the book, is an interesting look back at a horribly difficult time in our country's past: remember that this disaster happened while the Great Depression was going on.
I can't even imagine.
Have a good Friday and Saturday. Back at it Sunday!
**As an interesting side note, the same kind of concerns that might be tossed out today were being thrown around when the movie came out: the idea of propaganda, that the government shouldn't be making movies to put in theaters, etc.