So I've got this coworker who is definitely a lib, maybe a centrist lib. for some context, I know he's watched some City Nerd and drives a Prius.

The topic of weather came up and he was surprised that some of us were hoping for some rain (it's becoming Autumn here). I remarked that due to global warming we're getting hotter, longer, much drier summers and pointed out that lots of local plant life is struggling. (this is obviously just the beginning and it's gonna get a lot worse)

I shit you not, he sarcastically says: ":wojak-nooo: nooooo, my eco-system-erinooo!"

I was taken aback :wut: and all I could do was ask if he was joking or not (he said he was). luckily no-one else even knew what he meant so it killed the conversational momentum before I could get heated.

I know many folks don't think about the importance of the natural environment much but, how does one reference it with such scorn? what the fuck?

  • blight [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    what would that joke be? 4D chess meta-irony or what? sounds like a schrodinger's douchebag. my guess he thinks it's overblown and just virtue signalling

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Its weird watching local weather station's weather people talk about how there is drought conditions, burn bans, and other bad things one day then talk about slim chances for rain the next day like its a bad thing.

  • TillieNeuen [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    A Prius driver who doesn't care about the environment. You've found him, it's the perfect :LIB:

    Congratulations?

      • TillieNeuen [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Interesting. I assume OP's coworker got the car because it's a class marker and indicates a certain aesthetic. Is it the same for your coworker? I'm assuming he's more of the tech bro variety of libertarian, not the off the grid separatist type.

        • Bobson_Dugnutt [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I don't know who drives it, I just see it in the parking lot sometimes. It's at a mixed blue/white collar workplace in the suburbs.

  • innocentlurker [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    it's the capitalist notion of "externalities" but internalized by a prole...pretty sad

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I used to work outdoors and I believe an entire shitload of Americans conceptualize their existence as decoupled from the natural environment. it's all just screens and climate controlled boxes. the idea that their reality is subject to something called a biosphere is not entertained. food appears, by magic, at grocery stores in abundance and diversity year round.

    people who stay up to date on the weather forecast are strange. people who are concerned about pollinator services and native plant habitat are just eccentrics with a nature hobby. people who have a flashlight, batteries, a portable radio, and other materials for basic preparedness for extreme weather events are silly preppers. people who look up floodplain maps and internalize the basic topography of their neighborhood/town are weird.