America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era

Post-globalization & Trade

• Brief side thread debates “post-globalization” versus “deglobalization.”
• Some argue post-globalization just means “whatever comes next,” which could include more globalization (e.g., “hyper-globalization”) or partial reshoring, not necessarily rollback.
• Others are skeptical the term adds much clarity.

Cognitive Dissonance & Partisan Identity

• Major theme: people who love the outdoors but vote for politicians perceived as hostile to environmental regulation.
• Explanations offered:
  • Voters prioritize other issues (abortion, guns, culture war) above environment.
  • They mistrust that specific regulations deliver real benefits or see them as past the point of diminishing returns.
  • Strong partisan identity and “team sport” politics override personal issue preferences.
• Some say everyone has dissonance; others argue MAGA-style politics shows it in extreme form, describing it as cultish or propaganda-driven.
• There’s meta-debate on whether calling this out is “curious” inquiry or just provocation.

Outdoors Culture, Hunting, and Rural Lifestyles

• Several outdoorspeople report exactly the tension described: deeply environmentally attached communities that still vote anti-regulation.
• Others push back, arguing many hunters and fishers are serious conservationists, and barroom bragging doesn’t capture their real motivations.
• A historical note: mid‑20th‑century hunting culture (and groups like the NRA) is described as once pro‑government and conservationist, then shifting in the 1970s toward individual rights and anti‑state rhetoric.
• Rural lifestyles are called out as resource‑intensive and non-scalable (large trucks, meat-heavy diets, land use, hunting), feeding resentment when regulation bites locally.

Environmental Policy, Data, and Messaging

• Dispute over Trump-era rollbacks:
  • One side says they targeted marginal rules, not core laws, and broad air-quality metrics didn’t worsen immediately.
  • Others note regulatory reinterpretation (e.g., EPA, wastewater) can gut protections without formal repeal, and point to rising unhealthy PM2.5 days and recent wildfire smoke.
• Some accuse media of cherry‑picking years and metrics to create “backsliding” narratives; others counter that context (COVID, fires) and long-term trends matter.
• Debate over bans on older diesel boat engines: critics see symbolic, high-cost rules that kill small businesses; defenders stress health/climate benefits and argue externalized costs make “cheap” recreation illusory.
• “China does worse so our efforts don’t matter” is widely criticized; proposals include domestic carbon pricing plus border carbon tariffs.
• Health co-benefits (fewer deaths/asthma) are cited as enormous, though some question cost estimates or note they imply lost profits for healthcare.

Broader Hypocrisy & Morality Tangent

• Long subthread uses meat-eating and animal ethics to illustrate how people live with contradictions.
• Arguments diverge on what counts as “cognitive dissonance” versus “hypocrisy” or simply contextual morality, but many see unresolved contradictions as a universal human condition mirrored in environmental politics.