Boing Boing - Why do MAGA cultists vote for candidates whose policies will make them poorer, sicker, and less safe? According to political psychology professor Stephen J. Ducat, it's because their tribe demands a corrupt authoritarian leader… Mystified by Donald Trump's 2016 victory, Ducat set out to understand why people would vote for a "charmless moron who didn't understand the world and who was kind of a treasonous con man. Yet that's not how half the country saw him," Ducat says.
As he researched the book, he learned that right-wing tribalism is deeply intertwined with autocratic leadership. "Understanding the tribe and understanding right-wing tribes means understanding an autocratic leader because right-wing tribalism is so much tied in with the role of an authoritarian or autocratic leader," he says in the interview. "So the very things that you and I might find repellent, his corruption, for example, is part of what his followers adore about him, because his brand is impunity. You know, the fact that he's been openly corrupt, he's a liar, racist, sadistic, and has never until relatively recently been held to account or pay a significant price and it still remains to be determined if that is actually gonna happen. Those qualities of impunity, his followers find powerfully seductive and admirable."
WhoWhatWhy - Accessing clean water is an issue for a significant swath of the population, and the situation is only apt to worsen in coming decades, new modeling work reveals. About 55 percent of the world’s population currently has trouble accessing clean water at least one month out of the year, and by 2100, that number could rise above 65 percent, researchers calculated. Minimizing water scarcity now and into the future will rely on curbing water use, reducing pollution, and mitigating the effects of climate change, the researchers suggest. From agriculture to manufacturing to cooking and drinking, human existence is inextricably linked to the availability of clean water. That need is reflected in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6, one of 17 goals representing targets for global development.
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Greg Gerritt - The link between rightwing autocracies and support for polluters comes from ther same root. Corrupt is okay. Of course there are several areas that right wing zealots will turn on the rulers. When their kids are hungry and when they are being polluted to death. So under right wing governments environmental activists must die as they challenge the impunity. China used to sort of let environmental problems reach the news, but is much less likely to do so now as it goes more into militarism.
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