Former climate activist

[Syne]

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/OybheweZGxw

[C C]

VIDEO EXCERPTS: So we were all like Bernie Sanders supporters, the 2010s. It's like really important to put yourself in the mindset of what that ideology was like at the time. And now when I reflect on it, I think it was this desire to like do good in the world. I wanted to make an impact, and I thought I could be of service. And at the same time, a lot of this ideology that we know now really well, like kind of the woke stuff and the oppressor versus oppressed mindset, was coming into my newsroom.

I was not just like, I'm a Bernie supporter and I want free college. It was like, oh, if you have white privilege, you need to sit down. Like, if you're a cis person, you need to sit down. And so I'm in my mid-20s looking around the newsroom and going, I've got a lot of privilege.

[...] And so psychologically, in retrospect, looking back, I think it was this desire to like atone for my privileged position that I had in the world. And the way I could atone was by propping up these narratives. It was very emotional driven and then black and white thinking.

So a lot of that was happening at the subconscious level, but that is I think what first drew me to it. It gave me a lot of accolades within the group of my colleagues and in the movement where I was like, "Wow, she's such a great ally. She's doing so good."

[...] The core tenants would be that the world's going to end in 10 years unless we basically keep fossil fuels on the ground. It's American imperialist capitalism's fault. And all of the politicians who aren't doing anything, they don't care. They're bought out by fossil fuel industry. Anyone who raises a question of questioning the narrative, they're a fossil fuel shill, or they're paid off.

And so it's not just like we have to save the planet, but it's that the systems that we operate in now are inherently evil, and if we just got rid of them, we could live in a utopia where everyone would be living peacefully off the land, and we would have harmony.

[...] The warmth of collectivism. Yeah, there's like a lot of like communist and Marxist undertones. which I think is intentional by the people who are organizing it. But I was just a useful idiot at the time, and kind of just going along with it.

[...] So when does this small hint of doubt turn into this complete breakup?

[...] So the whole world shut down at the peak of COVID. ... We saw a 17% reduction in our carbon emissions. ... And I'm thinking to myself, wait a minute, the climate movement wants a 100% reduction in our carbon emissions. What is it going to expect of our society?

[...] And so that was the first moment where I go, hold on. I don't know if I want to live in a world where we have zero carbon emissions because I'm kind of depressed right now at home. Like this sucks, and we have no freedoms. And so if you take the climate movement to its logical conclusion, it's going to be a big deal. It's going to require people to give up their freedoms in order to lower carbon emissions. And so that was one thing.

And then the other thing was [...] the masks, the plastic barriers between every table at a restaurant, and when you're checking out your food at the grocery store. I'm like, "Wait a minute. I've been sweating about [laughter] a single-use plastic straw for the last 5 years." And now we've proliferated more plastic in the last few months than I've seen in my lifetime.

[...] Do I really want to go to my grave never talking about the climate stuff that I have issues with, and weighing the cost analysis of does this actually need to be said? And I just sort of made a decision inside myself.

[...] I wonder if there was any personal confusion or loss of identity...

Yes, because I think when I was in the climate movement, I got my identity from being a good person and from being on the right side of history. And so I identified with that. And so good people don't question the climate movement.

[...] I talked a little bit about this idea of atoning, right? Because everyone's obsessed with the white privilege and everything. And I'm realizing like, oh my gosh, I'm an oppressor by being a white woman from America. And so I need to atone for my sins by pushing and being part of this movement. That is what makes me good. So if I'm going to leave this, I'm no longer going to be seen as good, and I'm no longer a good person. So who am I?

And then that's when you have to start doing the work of building up yourself, your sense of self and identity and that internal world. Which again, it took me again 5 years between questioning and leaving that job...

[...] The climate movement is trying to change our energy system from reliable fossil fuels to unreliable solar, and taxing us to do it, and getting us to worry about our carbon emissions and all these things. So it's very convoluted. I'm like the demon spawn of environmentalism, honestly.

So obviously we should always reduce, reuse, recycle -- the classic thing we learned in third grade. But that's not really what the climate movement is saying. The climate movement is making us feel guilty for living a modern life. The climate movement is taxing and overregulating reliable forms of energy, and trying to get us to be dependent on solar and wind, which we import those materials from China.

The EU now has an energy crisis because of the green movement. And so, there are so many negatives about the climate movement that go beyond just conservation, and don't even get me started on the mental health stuff of the young people...