US Authoritarianism

926 readers

291 users here now

ChonkyOwlbear is an Illegitimate Usurper

There's other groups and you are welcome to add to them. USAuthoritarianism Linktree

See Also, my website. USAuthoritarianism.com be advised at time of writing it is basically just a donate link

Cool People: [email protected]

founded 10 months ago

MODERATORS

ChonkyOwlbear

349

What are our freedoms doing in Kuwait? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by alphanerd4 to c/usauthoritarianism

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] mojo_raisin 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Almost everything about modern American life is based on oil. If we didn't "liberate" countries on top of fossil reserves we'd send ourselves back to 1800. So in a fucked up way, the things many of us consider "freedom", i.e. the "freedom to drive where I want", the freedom to grow crops, etc is in the Middle East.

Even if we used 100% electric cars and buses

Tires are made from oil
We can only make enough food because we can make fertilizer out of oil, and use oil to mine for phosphorus and potassium
Plastic is made from oil and most of our stuff is made out of plastic

Without oil, only nuclear power has the energy density to even come close to supporting modern American life, but of course, nuclear could only cover the energy side of the equation, not the materials side. You can't make tires out of nuclear power.

[–] marcos 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Hum... So that makes it's ok for one to just go there and take it?

Anyway, last I checked the US produced enough oil for their needs. Besides, ammonia and urea are made with natural gas, not oil. Plastic is also mostly made of natural gas, but it's a general name for lots and lots of different things, so it varies.

[–] mojo_raisin 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Hum… So that makes it’s ok for one to just go there and take it?

No, I suppose the agenda of my comment was unclear. I was implying that modern American "freedom" is inherently unsustainable and only possible due to oil, no alternatives suffice. The answer isn't more oil, it's changing how we live.

Anyway, last I checked the US produced enough oil for their needs. Besides, ammonia and urea are made with natural gas, not oil. Plastic is also mostly made of natural gas, but it’s a general name for lots and lots of different things, so it varies.

I sometimes use "oil" to refer to fossil resources in general.

[–] SkyezOpen 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Don't think we even got enough oil to justify the cost. More likely it was to dump money into the MIC, and generally distract from the erosion of privacy.

[–] mojo_raisin 0 points 7 months ago

Why not both?