This is a typically astute piece from Richard Seymour on the intersection between social failure and environmental change generating the current crisis in Texas. He offers a disturbing analysis of the (attempted) creation of “mobilised political constituency that is ready, even morally energised, for quite a lot of death”:
How, how does denialism work in this situation? It’s been widely remarked that Texas Republicans have come out fighting, by blaming renewables and the ‘Green New Deal’ for their situation. Texas Governor Greg Abbott blames the energy shutdown on renewables. Former Governor Rick Perry claims that “if this Green New Deal goes forward the way that the Biden administration appears to want it to, then we’ll have more events like we’ve had in Texas all across the country”. There is no point in fact-checking these claims. Everyone knows that Texas’ problem does not come from its renewables, and that Biden has no plans for a Green New Deal. That isn’t the point. The point can be found in the less noted argument that Texans want hardship, welcome hardship, if it means keeping the Federal government off their backs. Thus, again, Rick Perry. This is structurally identical to the claims, early in the Covid crisis, that grandmothers and grandfathers would be happy to suffocate to death in overcrowded hospitals if it meant their children could continue to enjoy capitalist freedom.
Mark Carrigan 