Counterpoint: climate change is real. https://twitter.com/dylanmatt/status/1425797875997552641 …
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I'm trying not to be glib about this. It's true that all human societies (or all animal societies for that matter) have faced crises since time immemorial. But in last century there is novel development of civilization ending problems: nuclear weapons & climate change.
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Doom-mongering is bad, yes. But climate change (especially in context of nuclear armed states to fight future wars in resource wrecked world) really seems like something bigger than humanity has ever faced. And to date, species isn't doing a good job on it.
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Is it possible that climate can be solved with the tools of existing liberalism? Sure, I guess, in theory. But all we have to go on is record of last 40 years and it's not that encouraging.
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Also, if you're against alleged doom-mongering you should specify who the doom-mongers are. Joe Biden has described both climate change & voting rights degradation as "existential" threats. Anti-doom-mongers should go after him yet somehow don't
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Replying to @HeerJeet
These are existential threats. There have been existential threats in the past -- we did, after all, have a civil war -- but that hardly means there can't be existential threats again, and climate change and voting rights fit the bill. 1/
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Replying to @LeoECasey @HeerJeet
On these counts,
@mattyglesias is wrong. But I think it is a mistake to buy into his frame that the issue is whether or not liberalism is capable of addressing these threats. Liberalism is not some immutable, unchanging force. 2/1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
American liberalism changed significantly during the New Deal, acquiring a number of characteristics of social democracy. There is no intrinsic reason why it could not change in ways that addressed these threats. 3/
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Whether it will do so, and successfully address the threats, is certainly an open question. But precluding that possibility seems to me wrong, imputing essential characteristics to changing political forces. 4/
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It's possible to imagine a kind of liberalism -- say Lincoln's, FDR's or LBJ's -- that could tackle the climate problem. The question is whether actually existing contemporary liberalism can. I think that's an open question.
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