this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Oh, I didn’t realize it was the will of the people to fail to meet their climate commitments. I was pretty sure the majority of people thought that governments should be doing more. Was it also the will of the people to raise the pension age in France? And the people of Canada support the slow privatization of their public health system? That’s kosher to them?
You should look at polling more deeply. If you chuck an easy question like 'Are humans responsible for climate change?'' you'll barely get 50%. But if you then actually pose a piece of actionable policy like 'Would you support banning the sale of ICE cars in 2035?' You'll get 30%. So no. The will of the people is not meeting their climate commitment.
This will probably be the case for your other examples too. Public opinion is never as unified as you're making it seem.
So what? You think the people are the good ones and the political class are the bad ones? Who did you think voted them into office and who's responsible for the rise of right wing power? That just materialized itself? Get a grip of yourself and stop trying to divide the world just so you can have an easy time understanding. The world is complicated and not black and white. Stop dividing.
The general public is incredibly stupid on average. They absolutely vote for climate commitments and against change. You should have heard the whining coal mine workers on television when Germany decided to close them in a decade. The French pension system is out of balance due to longer, healthier lifes and needs a rebalance - but is not allowed to change because "it has worked so far". There was never a winning change in policy. Trying to save money on public services by privatization is a philosophy shared by many "free market" enthousiasts and sadly always takes preference over evaluation of money streams in public funding.
You know what this means? The people don't care. If the majority of people really cared, they would have voted for parties that put this issue front and center. But that didn't happen because we live in democracies and the people chose another party that had a different mission