The Exigent Duality
Environmentalism - 13:20 CST, 1/24/19 (Sniper)
This episode is an example of Tom Woods at his best; his eloquent guest, Alex Epstein, cuts through the so-called "Green New Deal" like a hot knife through butter, giving a wonderful, holistic examination of the thing from just about every possible angle.

He also ties in an overarching discourse about "when we have a problem, is the best way to approach it with totalitarianism, or freedom", which struck a chord with me. I remember reading that when the Soviet Union finally imploded due to totalitarianism, they brought in Western economists to save them with freedom, by implementing free market reforms. One of those men had a story about a Russian "economist" who visited a supermarket in America, and literally could not grasp how it was "decided" what went on the store shelves, even after supply and demand was explained to him several times.

Not only is that the level of economic illiteracy we're dealing with here, but the lessons of "bureaucrats sitting around a big mahogany table mandating five year plans via magic fiat wands", versus the "invisible hand" of profit signals (interest rates) guiding millions of individuals' investments, are totally lost on this "environmentalist" crowd. We've already figured this out!

The other thing which blew me away-- excuse the pun-- and which really exposes them for being nothing more than ideologues: they are not only opposed to nuclear-- which is nonsensical enough, since it's one hundred percent renewable-- but hydro! Hydro and wind are the same damned thing-- they are just naturally-moving molecules pushing a turbine; the only difference is the temperature and pressure of the molecules: are they thus in gaseous or liquid form?