This episode's conversation with a Heritage Foundation flak perfectly captures the extent to which a central project of the US conservative movement has been to undermine citizens' belief in the existence or possibility of "a public good." Do we live in a society? podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... - ThreadSky

sethcotlar.bsky.social • 51 days ago

This episode's conversation with a Heritage Foundation flak perfectly captures the extent to which a central project of the US conservative movement has been to undermine citizens' belief in the existence or possibility of "a public good." Do we live in a society?
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/public-broadcasting-is-in-danger-again/id73330715?i=1000683532866

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fcburleigh.bsky.social•51 days ago

📌

greenbirds.bsky.social•51 days ago

I think states need to start financing news organizations

sethcotlar.bsky.social•51 days ago

Unfortunately red states absolutely will not do that...and if they do, they'll probably use the money to subsidize right wing talk radio.

greenbirds.bsky.social•51 days ago

I meant blue states. I don't expect anything good from red states

magneticsara.bsky.social•51 days ago

I fn love on the media. Brooke Gladstone is a treasure.

kmcn13.bsky.social•51 days ago

It's been in danger of irrelevance for years, I'm afraid. I got tired of yelling at my radio years ago.

fabucat1958.bsky.social•51 days ago

Great show, great episode.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•51 days ago

One reason I think the future of progressive politics will have to be built primarily (but not exclusively) in local communities is that the concept of a "public good" is much easier to understand locally. Do you have clean water? Is transportation functional? Trash service?
https://bsky.app/profile/sethcotlar.bsky.social/post/3lfgpa4yro225

kevinleecaster.bsky.social•51 days ago

Cleaning up greenhouse gas pollution is a lot easier to tackle on a local level as well.

levin.bsky.social•51 days ago

This gets harder when it comes to things like building apartment buildings in areas zoned for single homes. Safe injection sites. Some aspects of covid mitigation (others are very popular actually yet not being moved on). Etc

sethcotlar.bsky.social•51 days ago

For sure. NIMBY-ism is a huge obstacle for a local, viable progressive politics. This is in part why right wing media outlets in Oregon talk non-stop about homelessness, crime, "woke public schools," and property taxes. Their goal is to amp up middle class white peoples' fears about the public.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•51 days ago

It's easy for clout-chasing reactionaries like Rand Paul to point to individual federal projects that have good scientific rationales but are not comprehensible to the average voter & say "OMG, can you believe your tax money is paying for THAT!!?!?" Lead water pipe removal is easier to understand.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•51 days ago

There's also the problem that most citizens are bad at math and assessing scale. Sure, some project that got a million dollar grant might sound like wasted tax money to your uninformed eye. That amount of money is 33 cents per US citizen,. https://medium.com/@karajones_13943/debunking-rand-pauls-festivus-report-the-benefits-of-wasteful-science-c280a6d6c897

sethcotlar.bsky.social•51 days ago

Conservative political culture thrives on the existence of vexing public problems that they blame on Democrats. But rather than offer meaningful solutions they simply cultivate cynical distrust in government and offer themselves up as the hammers who will destroy that terrible gov't on your behalf.

mandoqueer.itch.io•51 days ago

oh my god you suburbanite pricks just RIDE THE GODDAMN BUS LIKE THE REST OF US YOU STUPID FUCKS

wadewainio.bsky.social•51 days ago

I'm sure they would just want corporations to benefit from such tolls. Almost none of their objections are ever real, or logically consistent.

maaronjo.bsky.social•51 days ago

This one cracks me up considering the number of tollways in the “free” states of Florida and Texas

baxterbilsby.bsky.social•51 days ago

What strikes me - other than that toll roads date back to antiquity (quick research shows Assyrian Empire, 7th century BCE) - is the use of the word, by contemporary conservatives, "grooming" as a Neo-Newspeak dog whistle.

The irony is they expect the services of government for free.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•51 days ago

That OR GOP post on traffic is such a perfect encapsulation of that party's utter cynicism.
Market based solutions like surge pricing? No way!
More tax revenue to expand the state highways? Are you kidding me?
Better public transportation? WTF, is this the Soviet Union?

mitycheese.bsky.social•51 days ago

The cities were it has worked typically do have good public transportation. That's the point. Get people to use the existing infrastructure. Someone once said, the measure of success of public transportation is not that poor people use it, but that the rich do.

speakeasy62.bsky.social•51 days ago

Yes. Yes it is. Americans voted for this. We are the United States of Russia.

kaerick.bsky.social•51 days ago

The Party Of Grievances has no solutions. Shame that Democrats have entertained this for decades, rather than messaging judo with it. Many of us were raised with "Anyone can complain about a problem, show me you can think by offering a solution, even if it is a bad one."

sethcotlar.bsky.social•51 days ago

Conservatives love to complain about "government waste" like the SNAP program & many also admire Elon Musk who profits from many government contracts and pays a relatively small percentage in federal taxes. Musk could fund SNAP for 41 million Americans and barely notice. https://bsky.app/profile/sethcotlar.bsky.social/post/3ldozlh6mzk2v

sailbarque.bsky.social•51 days ago

Didn't Tucker Carlson rave about Russia's public transportation? Is he some kind of commie!

nullinterface.bsky.social•51 days ago

So much GOP rhetoric. Be angry yet reject all concrete proposals on the insistence that there's some unspoken magick out there to solve it cheaply and without inconvenience - financial, logistical, and especially ideological.

jessehixxx.bsky.social•51 days ago

This one seems especially rich given the Republicans pushing to privatize already existing toll roads

awoaca.bsky.social•51 days ago

Rand Paul is incapable of constructive thinking/action. A failed human being.

roseneric.bsky.social•51 days ago

Ironically, your math is wrong. It is less than 1 cent per citizen.

jgilligan.org•51 days ago

And the million-dollar project is often spread over several years, so it's more like a dime per year from each citizen.

cognitomode.bsky.social•51 days ago

But does the investment in local initiatives lead to greater credulity about the need for those bigger federal projects? Because, like, we need those large scale projects too, right?

mrchompchomp.bsky.social•51 days ago

The problem is that while conservatives understand, on the local level, that this stuff is good, they don’t associate it with progressivism and refuse to blame right wing state or federal government when it goes away. It’s incredibly frustrating.

mrchompchomp.bsky.social•51 days ago

* At least here in rural Ohio.

sitdownandeat.bsky.social•51 days ago

I can think of 6 publicly funded Radio stations in Portland. There is a will to support public radio in some communities. I think NPR would see more support in some communities and wither in others if it was no longer federally funded.

darkcloud.bsky.social•51 days ago

Simple concept to get this message across:
If you are afraid of drinking tap water, your community is not voting right

djlavoie.bsky.social•18 days ago

NYC Councilman Chi Osse is doing something similar on TikTok, with his series "Why shit not working?" It's excellent and exactly the kind of local organizing/informing we need: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2ADaepo/

terrill23.bsky.social•51 days ago

Conservative criticisms relating to the California fire are a case in point. Imagine their reaction if LA and surrounding jurisdictions had tried to increase taxes to fund fire-fighting and water capacity to meet a fire of this magnitude.

jbfilms.bsky.social•51 days ago

cuibonobaby.bsky.social•51 days ago

Haven't you heard? There is no such thing as "society". See: Margaret Thatcher.

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