This is the product of a couple of cultural movements in previous generations.

1. People who conflated their Cold War-era opposition to nuclear weapons with opposition to nuclear energy. The Venn diagram with early environmental movements has considerable overlap.

2. A more general and mostly-irrational fear of nuclear energy mostly stoked in the U.S. by Three Mile Island, which is a case study in good nuclear accident management with piss-poor public relations. (See: the first few seasons of the Simpsons many gags about the dangers of the power plant.)

3. The current environmental movement’s general unwillingness to acknowledge nuclear energy as a very advantageous tool in the push to eliminate fossil fuels. Why? Over-optimism about where renewables are now and continued influence of the Boomers from #1 who taught all of their university classes.

4. Over-reaction to Fukushima, particularly in the EU (other than France). And then doubling down until Ukraine forced their hands when Russian gas became an embarrassment.

Do you know what parents did before the DoE? Put their kids in the exact same school system they do now. The DoE started in 1980. The idea that Washington should suddenly have that much influence over a state/county-run public school system that existed since the 1600s was controversial.

Make the case for the DoE by all means, but reading this thread is blowing my mind. The DoE is barely older than I am and judging by tuition inflation and student debt it has left a few things to be desired in its short life.

I still don’t understand how this would close any schools or universities. The public school and state university system has been here since the 1600s. Other than e.g. military academies, what schools do the feds run? Not many. They slosh a lot of money around, but it isn’t clear to me that it’s been a net positive in the 40 years it’s been active, judging by effects on tuition, student debt, etc.

There’s a lot of dumb rhetoric (and people) behind some of these calls to end the DoE, but the schools survived for 300+ years before it existed.

Why would ending a 40-yr-old Federal department end the 400-yr-old colony/state-based public school system?

Of all the departments that could be eliminated, it’s only after Homeland Security in terms of one with a previous status quo in living memory.

A bus felt liberating before I got my driver’s license. And driving felt liberating before I got ahold of aircraft controls for the first time. One day I’ll get this jetpack to work and then forget about planes.

There is a continuum and its hard to go in the other direction without feeling the additional restrictions.

Passenger trains exist in the U.S. They used to be popular. Then planes and affordable automobiles put them out of business. If you don’t live in a dense urban area, you almost certainly have a car, meaning you aren’t beholden to train schedules and destinations. If you are in an area where you get by without a car, an Uber to the airport gets you to your destination much faster.

it should be announced loudly like they hold the Galaga high score at the local arcade

Hello, fellow old person.

That’s the exact opposite of the situation. The tax code is so outrageously complicated and obtuse that only the rich can afford the sort of accounting to take advantage of it.

My ancestors died fighting for the Union, but I have to admit a tiny bit of me has a soft spot for that flag only because I liked the Dukes of Hazzard when I was little.