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Energy Secretary Chu Likens Americans to Unruly Teens, Then Has P.R. Obfuscate About It
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has a Nobel Prize (in physics) and big plans for the environment as part President Obama's "Green Team."
He also has a stunningly paternalistic and off-putting view of typical Americans like you and me:
Speaking on the sidelines of a smart grid conference in Washington, Dr. Chu said he didn't think average folks had the know-how or will to to change their behavior enough to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
"The American public... just like your teenage kids, aren't acting in a way that they should act," Dr. Chu said. "The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is."
And like a fast-learning pol, he knows how to follow up offensive comments with phoney-baloney lip service via spokespeople:
Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow added: "Secretary Chu was not comparing the public to teenagers. He was saying that we need to educate teenagers about ways to save energy."
Scott Stein observes:
Are you kidding me? Just how stupid does Dan Leistikow think people are? Chu's intended meaning can't be disputed. Chu's entitled to his opinion, and some might agree with him that Americans are like misbehaving teenagers. But no one can read his statement and think "he was saying that we need to educate teenagers about ways to save energy." Don't try to convince us that this is what he meant. It's insulting. We know what he meant. We can read.
More here, via When Falls the Coliseum, "a journal of American culture (or lack thereof).
Tomcat1066|9.23.09 @ 10:06AM|#
I gotta agree with Stein. I can't see any way in hell to
interpret "The American public...just like your teenage kids,
aren't acting the way they should act" into "educate
teenagers".
Of course, since when is paternalistic bullshit surprising from
anyone in this government?
Meta4|9.23.09 @ 10:10AM|#
""The American public... just like your teenage kids, aren't
acting in a way that they should act," Dr. Chu said"
He needs a butcher knife up the ass.
|9.23.09 @ 10:11AM|#
It's actually worse than the fact he truly thinks adult
Americans are too stupid to "get climate change." They are planning
an assualt on our children by visiting thousands of schools to
"educate" the young ones.
You have to if the parents won't buy it then you have to go
directly to the kids.
I was at meet the teacher night last night and saw at least two
posters on global warning in my daughters science classroom. (I
guess they didn't get the memo that it's now called climate
change)
Jonas|9.23.09 @ 10:12AM|#
It's like these people thought "1984" was an instruction manual and not a warning.
Meta4|9.23.09 @ 10:12AM|#
Scott Stein observes: Are you kidding me? Just how stupid does
Dan Leistikow think people are?
Stupid as teenagers, Mr. Stein.
Robert Gibbs|9.23.09 @ 10:14AM|#
Spokesman Leistikow was saying that we need to educate teenagers about ways to save energy. He was comparing the high energy of teenagers to the enthusiasm of the American public.
Mike M.|9.23.09 @ 10:15AM|#
Yes, they think we're pretty darn stupid. Too stupid to live,
maybe?
The best thing we can do regarding stuff like this is to just
forward it along to family, friends, and anyone who will listen.
These gutter rats will undo themselves with their own big
mouths.
squarooticus|9.23.09 @ 10:15AM|#
Art: at some point, parents need to decide that the danger to their children of indoctrination makes it worthwhile for them to pay for an appropriate private school, or to make the sacrifice to home school their children.
Robert Gibbs|9.23.09 @ 10:16AM|#
Mr. Gibbs misspoke: Mr. Leistikow was NOT saying that we need to educate teenagers.
Art-P.O.G.|9.23.09 @ 10:16AM|#
Chu left out the part about how government doesn't need to be anyone's parent, right?
Abdul|9.23.09 @ 10:16AM|#
Dr. Chu surely anticipated your petulant and childish responses. Now clean your rooms or no TV for a week--not even the Jonas Brothers DVD.
Robert Gibbs|9.23.09 @ 10:17AM|#
Mr. Gibbs misspoke. The President believes sincerely that educating teenagers is a national priority.
Xeones|9.23.09 @ 10:17AM|#
Thank you, Rich. Sorry i'm late.
Yo, Energy Secretary Chu's comments were insulting and in poor
taste.
Gilbert Martin|9.23.09 @ 10:21AM|#
Here is an interesting take by Victor Davis Hansen at National
Review Onlinne on the whole mindset exhibited by Chu's remarks by
numerous folks in the Obama administration - led by the big O
himself:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTA4OWRmZTM3MmQwNzJlZWMyMDc4MTY1ZGE5NWMzODM=
|9.23.09 @ 10:26AM|#
News flash, college professors (at Berkeley, even!) look down on people with real jobs.
Stretchy|9.23.09 @ 10:27AM|#
**sigh** i'm outraged... nah, I'm done being outraged. Especially at someone suggesting people of any group are stupid.
|9.23.09 @ 10:27AM|#
Some day historians will see the irony of a Nobel Prize winning scientist chastizing ordinary people for their failure to buy into what will be remembered as the biggest scientific fraud in history.
|9.23.09 @ 10:32AM|#
"The American public has to really understand in their core
how important this issue is."
This is undoubtedly a reference to Americans' irrational fear of
nuclear power.
|9.23.09 @ 10:33AM|#
Ok, Chu is a scientist, not a politician or a bureaucrat. I'd
rather have somebody like him than a political hack in his
position.
Having said that, someone needs to explain to him that he lacks the
soft skills normally required of someone heading a cabinet-level
agency and that he needs to run his remarks by the flacks before
opening his mouth. Hopefully, someone already has...
Brilliant, Xeones, brilliant.
Warty|9.23.09 @ 10:35AM|#
Xeones, I daresay that your manners are outdone in stature only by your mode of dress.
T|9.23.09 @ 10:37AM|#
Yo, Energy Secretary Chu's comments were insulting and in
poor taste.
Weak. Amp up the vitriol and bitterness. This is H&R, not a tea
party with your grandmother.
|9.23.09 @ 10:38AM|#
No Tonio. He is an arrogant jackass. Just because you have a PHD, doesn't give you a license to say stupid, insulting shit.
Michael|9.23.09 @ 10:39AM|#
I think what he meant was that most of our financial situations resemble those of teenagers in that we can't afford to pursue the same kind of lavish, sustainable lifestyle he enjoys until after our parents send us to a prestigious Ivy league institution of higher learning.
Warty|9.23.09 @ 10:46AM|#
Xeones, my mother is no doubt beating the servant girl, as is her wont. I do hope your mother recovers in time to prepare my aperitifs satisfactorily!
Ska|9.23.09 @ 10:48AM|#
This is H&R, not a tea party with your
grandmother.
Have some respect for the elderly, for Chris'sakes.
|9.23.09 @ 10:54AM|#
I disagree with him on climate dhange policy prescriptions, but
when Dr. Chu denigrates Americans' intelligence or maturity by
comparing them to teenagers, I'll sign on to that.
Who am I
to
criticize others for true, if
impolitic remarks?*
* Just read the last sentence of each comment.
|9.23.09 @ 10:57AM|#
Squarooticus:
Needing two incomes to live in the People's Republic of NYC we do a
lot of home schooled deprograming.
Next year she's off to private school.
PS: Does anyone have an idea liberal or conservative Gearge Mason
University is?
Mike M.|9.23.09 @ 11:00AM|#
Does anyone have an idea liberal or conservative Gearge
Mason University is?
I don't know if I would go so far as to call it conservative, but
it's not nearly as far to the left as your typical university in
the northeast. It is home to the great Dr. Walter Williams after
all!
Paul Krugman|9.23.09 @ 11:11AM|#
"Just because you have a PHD, doesn't give you a license to say
stupid, insulting shit."
Loke hell it don't.
Warty|9.23.09 @ 11:15AM|#
If Episiarch is going to insist on acting the Irishman, then I do hope the doorman shall soon escort him to the street.
Phantom Limb|9.23.09 @ 11:16AM|#
Are we disagreeing that the average American doesn't give a shit or isn't motivated/intelligent enough to change his behavior? Because I would agree with that.
Xeones|9.23.09 @ 11:23AM|#
Are we disagreeing that the average American doesn't give a
shit or isn't motivated/intelligent enough to change his behavior?
Because I would agree with that.
What we're disagreeing with is that the government ought to be
everybody's parent.
Warty, give this Episiarch lout a sound rogering, and then throw
him out.
T|9.23.09 @ 11:24AM|#
Are we disagreeing that the average American doesn't give a
shit or isn't motivated/intelligent enough to change his behavior?
Because I would agree with that.
I think we're all agreeing that Steven Chu shouldn't be trying to
tell us how to act. The average American can be as much of a
dumbass as we all expect, and it's still not Steven Chu's business
to tell them they should be acting otherwise.
|9.23.09 @ 11:24AM|#
"Are we disagreeing that the average American doesn't give a
shit or isn't motivated/intelligent enough to change his behavior?
Because I would agree with that."
Or maybe the typical American has some commone sense and
understands that his individual actions don't amount to jack shit
and that the latest academic or scientific fad of his alleged
betters is likely to be false. Would you prefer a society full of
people who ran out and did whatever someone in a lab coat told them
was best? I sure wouldn't.
T|9.23.09 @ 11:27AM|#
Would you prefer a society full of people who ran out and
did whatever someone in a lab coat told them was best? I sure
wouldn't.
No, I'd prefer it if I could find attractive women that would do
whatever the nice man in the lab coat told them to. Lab coats are
cheap.
JB|9.23.09 @ 11:34AM|#
Chu, just like his Dear Leader, think they are so special and
bright.
Hey fuckhead, why don't you educate the tard Obama about taking a
convoy of people on a burger run because the fuckbag-in-chief wants
a photo-op?
|9.23.09 @ 11:35AM|#
The disgusting part is, he's insulting the people who are most likely right on the issue. When they have to start getting ugly, you know the jig is pretty close to being up.
|9.23.09 @ 11:40AM|#
Are we disagreeing that the average American doesn't give a
shit or isn't motivated/intelligent enough to change his behavior?
Because I would agree with that.
Its never a bad time to trot out one of the Iron Laws:
5. You aren't free unless you are free to be
wrong.
Colonel_Angus|9.23.09 @ 11:47AM|#
Ok, Chu is a scientist, not a politician or a bureaucrat.
I'd rather have somebody like him than a political hack in his
position.
No, he is a politician now. Being appointed in to a cabinet level
position makes him a politician and whatever scientific credibility
he had ought to go out the door.
If everyone is stupid, and they elected Obama who appointed energy
secretary Chu, doesn't that in a way invalidate anything he has to
say about anything?
$|9.23.09 @ 11:47AM|#
(I guess they didn't get the memo that it's now called
climate change)
I'm nostalgic for those few months when the terminological
changeover was in progress.
You could tell who was in and out of the Party loop by whether they
silently adopted the new term or snap-judged it as a right-wing
plot to conceal the true nature of the looming apocalypse, then got
told to shut the fuck up.
Good times.
|9.23.09 @ 11:50AM|#
5. You aren't free unless you are free to be
wrong.
Watch it.
I postulated something very similar, in bygone days, and got a
stern tut-tutting from Neu Mejican.
|9.23.09 @ 11:51AM|#
Wouldn't it be refreshing to find just one member of the Obama administration who actually likes and respects the American people?
Xeones|9.23.09 @ 11:52AM|#
I must guess that you have horrible teeth.
Warty's teeth are horrible, but not in the way you mean. He has
over a hundred rows of them, going all the way down his
throat.
As for me, i have the best teeth money can buy.
Xeones|9.23.09 @ 11:53AM|#
and got a stern tut-tutting from Neu Mejican.
Eff that guy. He's like a lazier version of joe.
Spartacus|9.23.09 @ 11:56AM|#
This just in: Nobel Prize-winning scientists have a bit of an arrogance problem and think they know better than everyone else about pretty much everything. I'm totally shocked.
|9.23.09 @ 12:02PM|#
Mike M,
Thanks, it was Dr. Williams that made me look into it and the
weather is alot better than at Hillsdale.
Might we also mention Dr. Chu's brillance by immediatly deciding to
keep nuclear waste peculating at local sites for time eternity when
he shut down Yucca Mountain.
|9.23.09 @ 12:04PM|#
That our uncouth days are behind us is an outcome that would please me greatly.
Michael Ejercito|9.23.09 @ 12:07PM|#
It's actually worse than the fact he truly thinks adult Americans are too stupid to "get climate change." They are planning an assualt on our children by visiting thousands of schools to "educate" the young ones.
You have to if the parents won't buy it then you have to go directly to the kids.
I was at meet the teacher night last night and saw at least two posters on global warning in my daughters science classroom. (I guess they didn't get the memo that it's now called climate change)
Do those posters even mention the
obvious quick fix ?
Every discussion of global warming should include
discussions about the obvious quick fix.
Xeones|9.23.09 @ 12:07PM|#
Sweet'n'Low, perhaps you could memorialize the day with some variety of ode, or sonnet?
|9.23.09 @ 12:10PM|#
My last sonnet was so poorly received I doubt my muse would find the grace to be so effulgent again.
|9.23.09 @ 12:10PM|#
That our uncouth days are behind us is an outcome that would
please me greatly.
Okay, what did I miss?
Does this outbreak of civility have something to do with net
neutrality?
\"Danneskjold\"|9.23.09 @ 12:13PM|#
Elsewhere I commented yesterday:
Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow added: "Secretary Chu was
not comparing the public to teenagers ... "
Yes, he was - in an obvious and blatant fashion. The benighted
masses with insufficient know-how who need to be taught a lesson so
we'll buy the administration's arguments, appreciate his candor, if
nothing else.
"Fair? It's I against the organized strength, the guns, the planes,
the battleships of five continents."
|9.23.09 @ 12:21PM|#
That our uncouth days are behind us is an outcome that would
please me greatly.
Fuck that noise, you prevaricating twat.
|9.23.09 @ 12:25PM|#
Well then, Dr. Chu being the good parent that he is no doubt understands that setting a good example is key. So he will be riding the bus to work, getting rid of his air conditioner, only using one square of TP to wipe his ass, and so on?
T|9.23.09 @ 12:28PM|#
Hush, Epi.
Suck it, Xeones. If you aren't willing to make a stand for free
speech and the unpopular position of being incivil, we'll do it for
you. You just need to learn how to act, like the good doctor
says.
Warty|9.23.09 @ 12:30PM|#
Endeavor to perservere against the unwashed, SugarFree! Your verse moves, me more even than the weightiest of arias.
Tomcat1066|9.23.09 @ 12:31PM|#
Obama wants me to say that civility is the hallmark of a small penis...unless you're being uncivil towards him. Then you're Joe Wilson.
T|9.23.09 @ 1:00PM|#
And all you shitcocks need to watch your fucking
mouths.
Fuck you, you cock-knocking turdburglar.
|9.23.09 @ 1:20PM|#
I am fucking shocked, SHOCKED, to see all this fucking god damn motherfucking vulgarity here, you shitweasels.
|9.23.09 @ 1:32PM|#
Come for the incisive political analysis and commentary; stay for the depravity.
|9.23.09 @ 2:06PM|#
Being appointed in to a cabinet level position makes him a
politician and whatever scientific credibility he had ought to go
out the door.
My Dear Col. Angus,
I beg to disagree with you, Sir. Appointed is the key word here.
Politicians are elected, bureaucrats are appointed. But I applaud
your courageous spirit.
Your Humble and Obedient Servant,
Tonio
T|9.23.09 @ 2:06PM|#
Come for the incisive political analysis and commentary;
stay for the depravity.
I come for the depravity. After all, every day it's a parade of
elected and bureaucratic officials trying to restrict our liberty.
How much more depraved can you get?
Duncan|9.23.09 @ 2:31PM|#
What if he's right? I think that he said what he thinks--which is always the greatest sin of a policitian.
T|9.23.09 @ 2:40PM|#
What if he's right? I think that he said what he
thinks
Many of us here think the average person is a moron incapable of
handling their life. Well, I do, anyway. But I don't have the
hammer of the state to use to make the idjits do what I think is
best for them (not that I would, anyway). When a guy who does have
a significant portion of the state at his beck and call makes
statements like this, it should worry you.
Phantom Limb|9.23.09 @ 2:54PM|#
I think we're all agreeing that Steven Chu shouldn't be trying to tell us how to act. The average American can be as much of a dumbass as we all expect, and it's still not Steven Chu's business to tell them they should be acting otherwise.
I agree completely, when the actions of the average American don't
affect me. I would argue, that in the case of us pumping
carbon into the atmosphere, the actions of the average American do,
in fact, affect me, a great deal.
I'm a small-l libertarian, and I generally agree with the comments
here, but sometimes the circle jerk centered around H&R is just
as disgusting as any liberal or conservative circle jerk happening
anywhere else on the internet. Someone disagrees with the H&R
consensus? QUICK CRUCIFY HIM!
Duncan|9.23.09 @ 2:54PM|#
T,
I think that the question is how he tries to get people to be less
dumb. If it's educating them or creating some incentives--that's
all well and good. Think of how littering campaigns changed
cultural norms, lessened gov't expenses cleaning up roads,
etc.
However, if it's through forcing people to do certain things,
that's different.
I've seen Chu speak at an EIA (Energy Information Agency
conference), and he was darn impressive.
EIA for those of you who don't know provides data on energy
consumption and prices.
Rich|9.23.09 @ 3:06PM|#
When they have to start getting ugly, you know the jig is
pretty close to being up.
I can't believe you guys passed up an opportunity
like that.
No Name guy|9.23.09 @ 3:20PM|#
Mr Chu....where's the horse you rode in on? Oh, over
there.....good, now go and fuck it you typical liberal, condenscing
bastard.
Phantom - uhhhh.....the rest of us can pump all the carbon dioxide
(it's CO2, by the way, not carbon - the two are quite different) we
want into the atmosphere, and it ain't gonna' affect anyone,
especially you.
Michael Ejercito|9.23.09 @ 4:02PM|#
I agree completely, when the actions of the average American don't affect me. I would argue, that in the case of us pumping carbon into the atmosphere, the actions of the average American do, in fact, affect me, a great deal.
How does it affect you?
What if he's right?
That is where the
obvious quick fix comes into play.
Duncan|9.23.09 @ 4:04PM|#
No name guy,
If everyone polluted as much as they wanted to, it would impact
you. Because libertarians believing in property rights, they also
believe in externalities. If my cows crap in the stream and ruin
your water supply, I should be able to sue you for damages to my
property rights to the stream--that's a short version of
libertarian environmentalism.
Duncan|9.23.09 @ 4:05PM|#
Correction #2: my water supply, not your water supply. I should proofread more.
T|9.23.09 @ 4:13PM|#
I think that the question is how he tries to get people to
be less dumb. If it's educating them or creating some
incentives--that's all well and good.
It is not the federal government's job to change cultural values,
raise awareness, educate me, or any of the multitudinous idiot acts
it engages in. If Chu wanted to make people less dumb, he should
have stayed at college and taught.
Michael Ejercito|9.23.09 @ 4:21PM|#
Correction #2: my water supply, not your water supply. I should proofread more.
Indeed.
|9.23.09 @ 6:03PM|#
Politicians are elected, bureaucrats are
appointed.
So Hillary Clinton isn't a politician anymore? Good to know.
Actually, in this day and age of ever-more baroque and lapidary
bureaucracy, it is more accurate to say that bureaucrats have civil
service jobs, and all others are politicians.
Paul|9.23.09 @ 7:06PM|#
Secretary Chu, you're a fuckin' asshole.
...
...
...
...
You misunderstood me, I never suggested you were a fuckin'
asshole.
Paul|9.23.09 @ 7:10PM|#
I never said your teenagers are fucking assholes, I said we should educate our teenagers to be wary of fucking assholes.
J D|9.24.09 @ 3:00AM|#
Whoa, whoa... Chu never said American's were acting like teenagers generally; he said they were acting as such given the assumption that current industrial/economic practices contributed to global warming and said global warming will eventually be harmful to us all (like the deficit). I don't think anything about that, given the internal logic of his statement, can be disputed.
Michael Ejercito|9.24.09 @ 8:24AM|#
Chu never said American's were acting like teenagers generally; he said they were acting as such given the assumption that current industrial/economic practices contributed to global warming and said global warming will eventually be harmful to us all (like the deficit). I don't think anything about that, given the internal logic of his statement, can be disputed.
There is an
obvious quick fix to that.
Chu chooses to advocate the equivalent of abstinence-only sex
education.
|9.25.09 @ 3:41PM|#
Steven Chu comes across as an illiterate man. We have a word for "American public" -- AMERICANS.
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