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America's Dish Detergent Wars
The fuss over phosphate bans provides an object lesson in the paranoid politics of the Tea Party's anti-liberal backlash
Political observers trying to understand the conservative backlash movement in America known as the Tea Party certainly have their work cut out for them. It's a movement primarily composed of Medicare recipients who object to "government-run healthcare". Its leaders claim they're more libertarian in orientation, and yet they routinely back some of the most anti-choice politicians ever to run for such major office. One of their key leaders likes to compare himself to Martin Luther King Jr, but the issues that most reliably get Tea Partiers to hit the streets are reliably racialised to exploit their prejudiced paranoia. They are full of contradictions, often making – and then running from – position statements, and seem to be more about just being angry than listing specific grievances.
But as a long-time conservative-watcher, I think the best way to understand where reactionaries are coming from is to look at some of the smaller issues that get them all riled up. Take, for instance, the long-standing fight over phosphates in dish detergent. The parameters of this debate provide an excellent insight into the Tea Partiers, what motivates them, and why they're so paranoid.
Many dishwashing detergents use phosphates as water-softeners, but the problem with phosphates is that when they run off into the local water supply, they upset the balance of oxygen in the rivers and lakes and have the potential to kill off fish. The simple solution to this problem is simply to ban phosphates in dish soap, something numerous states have done.
It shouldn't be too controversial; the non-phosphate soaps do just as good a job at cleaning dishes, but they may not leave glasses as spot-free, which should be a small price to pay for a healthy environment. This isn't just conjecture. When I had a (relatively cheap) dishwasher in Texas, I bought non-phosphate soap and noticed no real difference. Then again, I'm not one who believes my friends investigate their wine glasses to make sure they have no water stains on them.
But for many, any price paid to keep the environment clean is too high. As soon as Spokane County in Washington banned phosphate dish detergent in response to oxygen depletion in its rivers and lakes, many residents rebelled by actually driving to Idaho to purchase the same kinds of dish detergent they'd been using before.
On its surface, this seems like illogical behaviour. Surely, getting in a car and driving across state lines just to buy dish detergent costs more time and effort than just rinsing your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher, right?
But if you see the phosphate ban as an arbitrary act of liberal tyranny imposed for the sheer joy of making Real Americans have to wash their dishes by hand, then getting into the car and driving for a few hours to buy dish detergent can become an easy, risk-free way to feel like a warrior fighting for freedom. And while the big cities in Washington often pull the elections to the left, the countryside and suburbs of the state are stuffed with embittered reactionaries who are eager to believe they're being victimised by a bunch of dumb environmentalists who are incapable of thinking through the ramifications of a policy like this.
Rightwing bloggers gleefully seized on this story of dish detergent smuggling, gloating that Washington residents were sticking it to the environmentalists by using more gas to buy detergent and using more water to wash dishes. Of course, the ugly reality is that wastefulness has a larger impact than upsetting environmentalists – it means fewer resources for the future and a dirtier environment, of course – but the sheer glee of potentially inflicting stress on demonised environmentalists was enough to distract from these facts. Erick Erickson of Red State, alarmed by the possibility that a wine glass might have a spot on it that some red-blooded American would have to wipe off with a towel, said, "At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator's house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?"
The commenters at Free Republic also enjoyed gloating over the possibility that this would lead to more water use, showing those dirty hippies (their term) how stupid and short-sighted they were. In a telling exchange, one commenter asked, "I'm not exactly sure what the greenies are trying to accomplish, here…", and another replied, "It feeeeeeeeels good, and it demonstrates their 'concern'. That's all that really matters with the libs, not actual results."
Except, of course, that a short Google search would have resulted in immediate knowledge of what the "greenies" were trying to accomplish: reducing the amount of oxygen depletion in Spokane rivers and lakes that was killing off the fish. But the first rule of reactionary politics is: don't learn about the issues, or else you might find your kneejerk anti-liberal reactions weren't as smart as you thought they were.
Large parts of America have been primed through little issues such as phosphate bans to believe they don't need to know the actual facts behind an issue because they can simply substitute their paranoid hostility towards liberals for understanding.
Worse, they've given up any sense of responsibility as citizens towards the common good. Once people have absorbed the idea that wiping off an occasional glass is too much of a sacrifice to save the environment for the good of everyone else, it's not much of a leap for those same people to think that it's a travesty if someone poorer than themselves has decent access to healthcare, that they should have to take public transportation rather than leave the next generation with a planet wrecked through global warming, or that it's worse to raise the taxes on the richest Americans by 3% than have widespread unemployment.
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37 Comments so far
Show All"The commenters at Free Republic also enjoyed gloating over the possibility that this would lead to more water use, showing those dirty hippies (their term) how stupid and short-sighted they were. In a telling exchange, one commenter asked, "I'm not exactly sure what the greenies are trying to accomplish, here…",
Whatever you do, don't try to interject any logic or even reasonable questions into the Free Republic [sic] debate. I once logged on to to that site to post a mildly skeptical response to someone's boneheaded post -- no insults, no bitterness, just a polite and on-point and (I thought) reasonable question -- and got promptly booted from that site for the rest of my life.
Shame on me. Daring to ask an intelligent and informed question.
A very disturbing sign of the fascist mentality that is eager to take over this country. If you think things are bad now, wait until the Becks and Palins and Hannitys take control. They don't much like our kind.
"If you think things are bad now, wait until the Becks and Palins and Hannitys take control. They don't much like our kind."
We've seen them before. They would get loud at first but after a while go silent but do their silent business killing as usual. I don't see any major differences coming even if the other party gets both houses of Congress.
I agree completely! There is absolutely NO difference between Democrats and Republicans! I am sure that Obama and Pelosi and their whole gang really want to slash taxes for the rich, screw working people to the max, completely end federal student loans, arrest and deport all undocumented immigrants, make it a crime to be gay, ban all abortions (even in cases of rape or to save the mother's life), and repeal the Health Care Bill! The only reason they haven't tried to do any of these things is, well . . . um, . . . I'm not sure why they haven't tried. But there must be a reason because I know in my gut that there is NO difference between Democrats and Republicans!
Sigh. This meme again.
Get back to me after the Tea Party finalizes their consolidation of fascism in this country.
Unlike most posters on this site, I have actually lived under a third-world dictatorship. Believe me, things can get a lot worse and a lot more hopeless than they are in 2010 in the USA.
In fact I'm embarrassed to have to even point out that fact, as it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, but apparently it isn't.
1787: Only rich white men -- mostly slave-owners -- control ALL political power in the United States. Obviously women, blacks, and non-landowners (i.e. workers) stood ZERO chance of ever gaining ANY political power whatsoever. Man, the average Joe and Josephine in the USA was so screwed, we might as well have just thrown in the towel right then and there and resigned ourselves to live in a white male slave-owning society. No point engaging in politics with either the Whigs or the Tories, as there was absolutely NO difference between the two. So there.
Really, I swear, posters on this site are punks. All talk and no action. If you want change, you work for change with the cards you're dealt. Even if you've got a shitty hand.
Bitching is easy. Action is tough. Deal with it.
you bring up 1787 to prove your point...
By that time, the well known (at the time) abolitionist Lysander Spooner published No Treason.
He stated then that unless wage slavery was included in the fight, that ending chattal slavery would, overall, decrease the quality of life of those that had been "freed"
Even back then, though, most "activists" were single-issue focused and ended up planting the seeds of problems along with their solutions in the process (Executive Orders, the overreaching of Federal Government into State and Local jurisdictions, and the ability to suspend Habeus Corpus all can be traced back to this "movement")
I am by no means pro-slavery, don't get me wrong, but whether the "Massa" is a plantation owner or a cop, the effect is still the same.
To think that slavery was the defining issue of the Civil War is the same as saying that we are at war in Afghanistan to liberate the women there.
Also in 1787 there were also no TVs. That is the biggest difference
You aren't making fun of our esteemed Max Payne, are you? For shame! Tsk, tsk.
"I once logged on to to that site to post a mildly skeptical response to someone's boneheaded post -- no insults, no bitterness, just a polite and on-point and (I thought) reasonable question -- and got promptly booted from that site for the rest of my life."
A while back Rush Lint-balls had a TV show. Somebody intelligently challenged something he said and he quickly turned into sweating babbling mass of blubber. He simply couldn't successfully defend his position. So the solution? Lock him in a radio station and screen his calls so that will never happen again.
When you are peddling B/S it must be done in a controlled setting, otherwise it will be outed as the B/S that it is. That is why Lint-balls is locked in his radio studio, and you got booted from Free Republic...
On the progressive sites I visit, there are the occasional wingnut postings, although they are sometimes ignored. Not so with the right-wing sites -- you are banned if you dare contradict any deeply-held if ludicrous conservative belief, no matter how politely you express yourself. As the debates of the past few nights proved, the ideas of the Tea Party oafs can't stand up to tough questioning and their knowledge of any subject is tenuous at best. To paraphrase: drunk on delusion and stupid is no way to go through life. Apparently the Bush Crash wasn't enough of a wake-up call for these petty, insufferable, ignorant, racist boobs.
People love Conspiracy Theories.
The attraction is that they can think they are thinking and don't actually have to do any thinking.
Official explanations, however, are preferred by those who just refuse to think. Even if the Official Explanation is actually a conspiracy theory.
This is a very apt and witty description of the schizophrenia of the Tea Partiers and the frustration they cause for the rest of us. They're like those who throw their trash out of their car windows in the name of 'freedom'.
Maybe the EPA should pass a regulation saying that people are not allowed to poop in their kitchens, just so we can have a good laugh at the Te Partiers expense...
If old axioms were true, every one of those Tea Party rallies of spiteful retired people with nothing better to do than angrily complain about the government would show them sans noses.
As a sidenote, I wonder if 'Juice' Angle or 'Perky' O'Donnell, should they happen to be elected, will, in the interest of lowering the deficit, voluntarily take a cut in pay, buy their health insurance on the open market, fire most of their staff, give back their living allowance, and forego their lavish pensions and other Congressional perks? I'd bet against it, but I wish someone would ask them that question.
I have always believed that conspiracy theories give people the illusion of control over a world that is fundamentally threatening. Their underlying fear and insecurity is justified while the explanatory framework these theories offer gives them a false sense of empowerment. They "get it" while the unenlightened continue to be victimised. While this would otherwise be harmless, the violence and destruction these deluded folks are capable of is really disturbing. It would seem that the real conspiracy is the one corporate interests have deployed to whip up the frenzy so as to ensure that their interests continue to be served.
The Vatican is behind it all.
Yeah. Have you noticed how spotless they think they are?
They must be using phosphate detergents to launder the semen stains out of their surplices after they rape the altar boys.
So you really believe in magic bullets?
a Single highjacker with a boxcutter grabbed control of 3 different planes on 9-11? (even the government claims it took 19, which would be a conspiracy)
a "conspiracy theory" is an idea that more than one person gathered together to plan something.
unless passed by an absolute monarch with no advisers, every law ever made is, by definition, the result of a conspiracy.
I believe that most things that happen on any large scale on this planet are either forces of nature or conspiracies. Anything any nation-state does is a result of a conspiracy. If you and I were to decide to go out for coffee, we would, by definition, have a conspiracy to go out to coffee together.
obviously your line "conspiracy theories give people the illusion of control over a world that is fundamentally threatening. Their underlying fear and insecurity is justified while the explanatory framework these theories offer gives them a false sense of empowerment." makes no sense when one looks at what the term "conspiracy theory" means. The question is, what do you mean by it?
If you are using it in the common parlance to ridicule the explanations that have come up about things like the JFK assassination, I must inquire then if you would agree that it would take a pathological case of cognitive dissonance that a bullet can deny all laws of physics, and pass through several bones, only to be in pristine condition, followed by another bullet that hit an object but somehow caused the object to move TOWARD the point of impact.
What was talked about in this article wasn't even a "conspiracy theory" instead more like a delusional persecution complex combined with pathological sociopathy
I find it odd that the author assumes we all use dishwashing machines. The houses I've rented or bought always seem to have the things, but I never use them. And my wife can dirty a lot of pots and dishes when she cooks.
They use vastly more water, hot-water heating gas, and infinitely more electricity than hand washing, which pretty much has to be done anyway when food dries on the dishes.
But yes, it is amazing what typical USAns especially in the burbs, consider unbearable physical hardship these days.
Being out of a cell-phone service area
On a work trip, when I suggest renting a subcompact car - my co worker looks at me like I'm suggesting walking halfway across the state.
Making do without a car - even for just a few hours on a nice day with public transporation avaialble.
Power outages - even brief ones
Walking even short distancs
being in a place where stores are not open 24/7
Doing without A/C space on even a mild NE US summer day.
Putting on a sweater or fleece shirt instead of setting the heat to 72F
learning to use metric units like the rest of the world
And in may of these cases, it doen't seem to be discomfort that crates these aversions but ideology. Doing even briefly without this stuff goes against all the things "That Make America Great".
You can do without TV too while you are speaking of being free. Support a good author, buy a book.
Or you don't even have to support an author. Go to a half price book store and get two books.
Besides, the author gets darn little considering how much the publisher gets.
The great scientist Edward O. Wilson in "The Future of Life" (page 40):
"The relative indifference to the environment springs, I believe, from deep within human nature. The human brain evidently evolved to commit itself emotionally only to a small piece of geography, a limited band of kinsmen, and two or three generations into the future. ...
Why do we think in this short sighted way? The reason is simple: it is a hard-wired part of our paleolithis heritage. For hundreds of millennia those who have worked for short-term gain within a small circle of relatives and friends lived longer and left more offspring - even when their collective striving caused their chiefdoms and empires to crumble around them. The long view that might have saved their distant descendants required a vision and extended altruism instinctively difficult to marshall."
A good E.O. Wilson quote, thanks. I think there's a lot of truth there.
I reject this assertion, as if it were indeed "hard wired" into us as you say, 7th generation thinking would not have been capable of evolving.
Apparently, this indifference wasn't 'hard-wired' into the brains of Native-Americans. Some tribes habitually made decisions considering the impact on the seventh generation in the future. Mr. Wilson may have been limiting his research to white male Europeans, a common mistake of many anthropologists of the past.
It never fails to surprise me when I come across a story like this, that concern for the environment is considered left wing.
"Then again, I'm not one who believes my friends investigate their wine glasses to make sure they have no water stains on them." I have one who does! Actually MY wine glasses. Mows his lawn weekly too. Cold water and some elbow grease will remove lots of food remnants with detergents.
scrubbly bubbly---MD
Non-phosphate soaps are not only way cheaper than the sacred brands, but you have to be a moron to drive dozens of miles for phosphates. Goes to show how 'brilliant' some Americans are. Oy vey...
What a brilliant piece! It's dicey, and frowned upon by social scientists, to attribute widespread irrationality to a class of agents in order to explain their behavior. But Ms. Marcotte makes the case so persuasively that in this instance, nothing but blind, unthinking hatred of liberal environmentalists can explain why right-wing wackos will go to great lengths and incur all kinds of costs merely to avoid doing something good for the environment. Good show!
Like most "movement watchers" Marcotte has picked up on the most absurd tidbit of controversy and painted an entire movement with it. I seriously doubt that more than 25 "Tea Partiers" (scare-quotes used advisedly) even know of this very local fight over the trivialties of the contents label of dishwashing detergent.
Liberal watchers, abortion watchers, pit-bull watchers, ad nausium are all guilty of the same crazy-guy-with-a-bullhorn mentality and technique. Ignore them the same as we all do the guy shouting on the streetcorner.
You have a point here, waltdimm. The Teabaggers, Dittoheads, Beckophiles and other crackpot conservatives are a very small minority of the US population, magnified by a lazy corporate media that dotes on anger and conflict into a political force. Actually, the emergence of the Tea Partiers and the control over the party exerted by such babbling shock-jock idiots as Limbaugh and Beck show the Republicans are weak and sinking, kept afloat solely by all of that undisclosed corporate cash. If the GOP doesn't win big this time around, most of that cash may dry up, and so will the modern Know-Nothing Party.
Also, it's comforting to realize that the average age of the audience for Fox News is 64 and they aren't adding on younger viewers. In a generation, there will be nothing left of the Tea Party movement and the GOP will either, as Darwin says, adapt or die.
The MSM loves reporting about these teabag idiots.
The tea party goons(and yes they are funded by corporations) get the attention of the MSM, whilst the war protesters/Medicare for All adocates get nothing.
Recently, Amy Goodman had attended a rally in DC. There were thousands of anti-war protesters protesting and about 50 plus teabaggers protesting. Who did the MSM report? The teabaggers.
This tea party thingy is not just used by the Repugs,but by the Dems to manipulate the electorate to vote their way.
It's all Kabuki theatre bullshit.
Also, what kind of IDIOTS would oppose green cleaning products?
Go get sick on the chemicals you morons! Drinks those phosphates--yum yum!
“I have to admit,” he said, “that I’m one of those people that still thinks the dishwasher is a miracle. What a device! And I have to admit that because I think that way, I like to load it. I like to look in and see how the dishes were magically cleaned.”
Justice Clarence Thomas, US Supreme Court, April 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/us/14bar.html
Brilliant, Amanda. Welcome to Washington State.
Contrary to the post above, this 'tidbit' about the Right-Wing mentality is very significant _ it's a concise illustration of what motivates these folks. Its absurdity is instructive. It shows the value of logic in handling them.
I know of 'Libertarians' who oppose food labeling _ forcing product makers to list ingredients on containers. They contend that in a true 'free market,' consumers would eventually stop buying products that make them sick. Of course a few would perish in the process, but this would help rid the gene pool of inconveniences like peanut allergies.
These individuals would no doubt drive across the line to support free-market soap. The argument is that we deserve the 'freedom' to choose the best product, and they must not be 'enslaved' by the faggy whims of their fish-loving neighbors.
Of course, these philosophical gymnastics are means to and end, and that end is always, inevitably, to manifest maximum hatred for what they perceive as the character and values of those of us who would 'collectivize' our responsibility to protect our environment and to show compassion for our fellow citizens.
These people are insidious and dangerous. They are never going to change, and they want us dead. Their vision of 'America' is incompatible with ours, and there is no more possibility of reconciliation. The only hope is to appeal to the intelligence of the next generation and of that 'center' that is still out there. And we are only going to be able to do this if we understand what motivates our detergent-loving Tea-bagger compatriots. We have to stop wasting effort on logic, and see it for the fundamental fight that it is.
It's a movement primarily composed of Medicare recipients who object to "government-run health care". Its leaders claim they're more libertarian in orientation, and yet they routinely back some of the most anti-choice politicians ever to run for such major office.
THEY ARE BEING PAID, THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND, CASH, THEY ARE TO STUPID TO THINK FOR THEM SELVES, JUST LISTEN TO HALF OF THEM WHEN THEY ARE INTERVIEWED, IF THEY HAVE NOT MEMORIZED THEIR SOUND BYTES , THEY ARE READING THEM OFF A PAGE.
FOLLOW THE MONEY, THESE ELITES HAVE A NASTY GANG STALKING SPY NETWORK, WE NEED OUR OWN, TO FOLLOW THESE NIT WITS TO THERE PAY MASTERS, THEN ITS TIME FOR THE PRESS'S TO ROLL AND EXPOSE EXACTLY WHO PAYS THE AMERICAN STAZI.
THESE ARE ANTI AMERICAN AND UN-CONSTITUTIONAL FASCISTS TRYING TO TAKE OUR COUNTRY WITH THEIR OWN SS/GESTAPO.
THEY ARE TERRORISTS.
hhmmmm...
Nazis and Gestapo invoked in a mere 30 comments about dish-washing soap.
CD is beginning to stand for Clearly Deranged!
Lol, well lack of phosphates probably do help the waterways however non phosphate detergents certainly don't clean as well or brighten your whites nearly as good, my t shirts are gray, lol.