Quick Hits: Volume CCXIX

- With much of the world sequestered in their homes for the past few months, there's obviously been less driving. Less driving means less carbon emissions. How much less?

Daily carbon emissions declined 17% between January and early April, compared to average levels in 2019, and could decline anywhere between 4.4% to 8% by the year's end, a study shows. https://t.co/r2UGWnL11j

— CNN (@CNN) May 19, 2020

Naturally many anti-capitalists environmentalists are jumping around like poo flinging monkeys, essentially saying it is possible to substantively reduce carbon emissions. But if they were intellectually honest (I know. Just go with it), they'd acknowledge that it requires a borderline world economic collapse in order for such objectives to be met. Sorry folks, that's just not sustainable.


- CNN's Oliver Darcy unwittingly indicted his own network with this gem.

There has been much debate among the medical community regarding the use of hydroxychloroquine and its effectiveness. And it would appear hosts/contributors on Fox News reflect that diversity of opinion. However, a personality from CNN would have you believe that a network's personalities walking in lockstep is a feature, not a bug. 

- It was only a matter of time before the left's mantra of "all women accusing men of sexual harassment/assault deserved to be believed" was going to blow up in their collective faces. Sure enough, the Tara Reade saga laid that bare. So instead of standing with Ms. Reade or admitting what many already know, which is the left was weaponizing the issue for political gain, leftists have resorted to gaslighting.

For a perfect example, see the journalist Susan Faludi in The New York Times: "'Believe All Women' Is a Right-Wing Trap," reads the headline on her article. Faludi accuses conservatives of inventing the idea that feminists were demanding that all women be believed. According to her, "the preferred hashtag of the #MeToo movement is #BelieveWomen. It's different without the 'all.' Believing women is simply the rejoinder to the ancient practice of #DoubtWomen."

"Good luck finding any feminist who thinks we should believe everything all women say—even what they say about sexual assault," Faludi continues. This directly contradicts her earlier admittal that she had in fact "encountered some feminists who seemed genuinely to subscribe" to the more extreme interpretation of the hashtag.

Faludi is narrowly right that "believe women" was the more popular phrasing among #MeToo activists, and that contrarians were more likely to introduce the word "all" as a means of pointing out how silly the concept was. But whether the phrase contains "all" is unimportant: It means the same thing, regardless. The command to believe group X is straightforwardly and obviously a plea to have faith in the entire collective entity. Faludi claims in her piece that "believe women" is actually the opposite of "believe all women," but this is absurd. She is, to use a term beloved by victims' rights advocates, gaslighting her readers.

Oh, and be sure to check out this tweet storm put together by Mary Margaret Olohan of The Daily Caller. You'll notice some pretty prominent leftist female politicos setting that "right-wing trap."

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