Greetings From The Outrage-Industrial Complex
It's not real...none of this is real, but it does serve a very real purpose
Every day it feels like conservatives are up in arms about something. Not just mildly perturbed, but rage that would rank at 25 on a 1 to 10 scale. They are mad about it and it is always the fault of liberals.
Pick a so-called controversy, any controversy. “Obama phones.” Critical race theory. Drag queen story hour. Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The Green New Deal. Genderless potato head toys. Migrant caravans. Cities burned down by Antifa. M&M’s that aren’t sexy enough. M&M’s in a lesbian relationship. Transgender M&M’s.
It goes on and on and on, never ending. At any given moment you can tune in to Fox News or a Republican making an impassioned speech on the floor of the House or Senate and you would see the outrage pouring from every orifice.
But none of it is real. Not a single, solitary moment of it. It is completely fake and made up to the point where the actual words are the only real thing, but the underlying situation is a mere flight of fancy.
With the GOP now being the majority in the House of Representatives- Hell, even BEFORE they officially became the majority- it seems as if Sideshow Bob is currently the Speaker, and the Clown Car is stuffed to overflowing.
If you’re thinking the worst people in the worst are now the ones deciding who to investigate, it’s because they are and will be for at least the next two years. It’s a circus- and it’s Kevin McCarthy’s clown show.
This means we should prepare ourselves for the ramping up of the Outrage-Industrial Complex, which runs 24/7/365 and is always looking for its next victim. Now, though, it’s hyper-aware and likely to pounce on the dumbest and most unlikely of targets.
With that in mind, I present the latest offering from the Outrage-Industrial Complex:
Behold, “The War on Gas Stoves!!”
I wish I were kidding.
As Chris Hayes says, “It’s a day ending in ‘y,’ so there’s another freak-out going on at Fox News.”
Of course, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about that; it’s what the talking heads at Fox News Channel (FNC) do. The entire cable network’s raison d’ etre is keeping ignorant, rage-addicted White Conservative Christian heterosexuals scared and stupid. And they’re very good at it.
Their latest Fausse guerre also happens to be (at least to a reasonable/rational observer) one of their most ridiculous. Talking heads all over FNC are raising the alarm that the Biden Administration will be coming to take away your natural gas stoves.
Oh, the humanity….
Except that nothing of the sort is happening. Not that the truth has ever stopped FNC talking heads from a perfectly good attempt to embarrass Democrats. In this case, the truth is perfectly benign. Still, if there’s one thing we know about Conservatives and their cable news mouthpiece, the truth can be pretty inconvenient and thus is quickly swept aside whenever necessary.
Yesterday, the Republican outrage industrial complex went into overdrive over gas stoves. Several Texas Republicans, including Congressman Ronny Jackson, were adamant that the federal government and Joe Biden were coming after gas stoves.
Not that it’s ever stopped Jackson before, but that claim is not even remotely true. Instead, it’s another notch in a long cycle of conservative bedwetting over things that aren’t happening.
But how did it start?
The apoplectic fury from Republicans came from reports that show that one member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wanted to discuss the potential for regulating the use of gas stoves. The other four members of the commission did not share his views and so the matter was not brought up at their latest meeting.
The rightwing media chamber, however, latched onto the notion that somewhere one person wanted to regulate gas stoves. And from there a new culture war was born. Many conservatives, including Jackson, went to social media to blast President Biden for something he is not doing.
To say that the “War on Gas Stoves” is much ado about nothing would be something of an understatement. The “controversy” stems from a comment made last month by Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr., a Biden appointee.
Making what I suspect he thought at the time was a relatively benign comment on the risks of gas stoves, Trumka momentarily forgot that he was in a highly charged political environment in which Republicans would jump on every utterance. Which is what they did.
We need to be talking about regulating gas stoves, whether that’s drastically improving emissions or banning gas stoves entirely and I think we ought to keep that possibility of a ban in mind, because it’s a powerful tool in our belt, and it’s a real possibility here.
And there have been risks of using natural gas stoves in the home have been identified. None of these risks are new revelations, merely ones that Republicans choose to ignore for political convenience.
But the never-ending Republican game of “GOTCHA!” is where truth too often goes to die.
It’s long been known that gas stoves release three types of pollutants:
Nitrogen dioxide
Carbon monoxide
Particle pollution
The effects of the pollutants can be particularly impactful on children and those living in older homes and/or those with smaller square footage and poor ventilation.
Some of these health effects can be significant:
Increased risk of childhood asthma (both current and lifetime)
Aggravated respiratory symptoms (wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, difficulty breathing)
Irritated airways
IQ learning deficits
Increased susceptibility to lung infections
Deleted tissue antioxidant defenses (which protect the respiratory tract)
Changed lung function
Cardiovascular effects
Increased susceptibility to allergens
So, Trumka made an excellent point, based as it was on scientific evidence. And if you think about it objectively- not something for which Republicans or the talking heads at FNC are renowned- a gas stove is burning hydrocarbons in an enclosed environment. So, it would stand to reason there might be some health risks, no?
All Trumka was doing, then, was stating the obvious as a member of the Consumer Product SAFETY Commission. But, of course, not everyone could see Trumka’s comment in such rational, objective terms.
Of course, possessing the mental agility of your average fountain pen, Jackson’s never met a “controversy” he couldn’t take out of context and overreact to.
One of the things I love about social media is that there’s always someone willing to come along with a rational argument based on data and facts to settle things down. Not Ronny Jackson, though. He lacks the intellectual flexibility or open-mindedness to pay attention to any of it.
Why? Because it doesn’t fit the narrative of the Outrage-Industrial Complex…and because Jackson possesses the intellectual agility of a box of hamster fur.
So, no, jackbooted thugs from the federal government will NOT be kicking in your door and taking your gas stove from you…or from Ronny Jackson’s cold, dead fingers. Instead, what the feds will be doing is trying to steer Americans toward a healthier alternative to gas stoves…and isn’t it part of the government’s role to protect its citizens?
That’s precisely what they’re trying to do.
Of course, if you’re part of the Outrage-Industrial Complex, you only care about using any opportunity to embarrass a Democratic President.
GOTCHA!!!!
And I think Ronny Jackson needs to be careful when the subject of reduced cognitive performance comes up, knowhutimean?
And it gets even sillier from there because, as we all know, the Far-Right doesn’t actually want to DO anything. All they ever really want to do is to toss rhetorical bombs and @#$% shit up.
Jackson wasn’t alone. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) told Fox News that the theoretical ban stemmed from a desire to “control American’s lives and decisions.” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) weighed in, as well, tweeting that the “federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner,” and that “the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on.” Rep.Mark Alford (R-Mo.) even tweeted his own version of the Battle of Gonzales “Come And Take It” flag stylized to include a gas burner.
Fox News, which has a storied history of fanning the flames of hysteria over any sort of environmentally conscious lifestyle change (see Laura Ingraham attempting to suck a lightbulb covered steak through a plastic straw) reacted in characteristic fashion. Host Tucker Carlson dismissed the notion that gas stoves could constitute a safety hazard. “It’s totally fine to give fentanyl to addicts but a gas stove is a threat to your life,” Carlson mocked.
Ah, Tucker Carlson, who’s to reasoned, rational discussion what Ted Bundy was to healthy male-female relationships.
None of the people above- not Ronny Jackson, Mark Alford, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, or any other Right-wing talking head- are interested in having a reasonable fact-based tête-à-tête or a more public discussion. They know they can’t win on the facts, so they try to bury the subject in ridicule and bullshit because that’s the language their Right-wing base can process. They figure that no one will be able to take it seriously if they mock it and refuse to accept it as a serious topic. And in most cases they’re correct.
Unfortunately, too many on the Right fall for this tactic, perhaps because they’re incapable of thinking a subject through on their own. They need Carlson, Ingraham, or Sean Hannity to tell them what to think.
It’s how the Outrage-Industrial Complex manages to perpetuate itself. Of course, the people (except for Ronny Jackson) are smart enough to know they’re pushing bullshit, propaganda, and lies. But they continue doing it because they’re making a ton of money off the ignorance and gullibility of those who call the Far-Right home. And they’re laughing all the way to the bank.
The reason for this is straightforward:
You can show a dyed-in-the-wool conservative news reports and government fact sheets that prove, for instance, that the story surrounding “Obama phones” was made up by the right to cast aspersions on poor Black people. The program, which began before Obama was even president, was about helping poor people get back on their feet with access to phones to assist in things like getting jobs and housing. But it won’t matter. They saw one viral clip that circulated around the right accompanied by decades of racism about Black people and government handouts combined with seething rage and animus towards Obama for the twin sins of being a Democrat who won an election while also being Black.
It won’t matter. They believe what they want to believe and the world of conservatism is oriented around keeping them eternally mad on a nonstop diet of lies. Liberals cannot help this, no matter how earnest and patient they are in explaining reality.
For liberals, this feels wrong. We pride ourselves on the ability to process data and challenge our own assumptions. Generally liberals understand that if data debunks their emotions, no matter how uncomfortable, that they have to ultimately give in to reality. We can’t live in a dream world even if it feels better than reality.
The Far-Right live in a dream world of their own creation, and there’s nothing we can do to change that. It feels wrong, and in truth it IS wrong, but it’s not anything we on the Left have control over.
The truth is that the GOP version of Conservatism “is oriented around keeping them eternally mad on a nonstop diet of lies.” Of course, “them” being Fox News viewers and Republican voters who hate Liberals and Democrats. But that doesn’t make their reality REAL.
Their made-up world of lies and propaganda isn’t factual. NONE of it is real. No one’s coming for your gas stove, Comrades. You’ve been punked. And you’ll continue being punked until you pull your anteriors from your posteriors. Because the Outrage-Industrial Complex runs on your ignorance and willingness to do and believe what they tell you. Oh…and to continue to send them your hard-earned money, because fleecing the rubes is at the center of their business model.
It’s time Americans learned to think for themselves, don’tchathink??
Yeah, like that’s going to happen.
