One emotional appeal that Trumpy conservatives make is that liberals want to fuck with your life in every way. They want to take away your hamburgers and turn everyone into a vegan, for gosh shakes. And Trump has been on his kick about low-flow toilets and dishwashers, because evil liberals think you should use less water.
And those are all kinda dumb: I am not aware of any hamburger bans in the United States, and new toilets and dishwashers work great. Conservatives react to the idea that the world is their oyster, they can do whatever they want and use and waste however much they want, and liberals want to get in the way with their pesky regulations.
But there is one concrete area in which this complaint actually rings quite true: plastic straw bans.
Why? Paper straws suck. The texture is extremely noticeable and gets in the way of enjoying your beverage. They get soggy. Everyone hates them. They are this caricature of liberals come to life: ruining your sodas because some central planner in a dimly-lit office deemed it necessary.
And for what? Of all the plastic that’s wasted in the world, how much of it is represented by straws? It’d be one thing if this tradeoff gave us a meaningful win on the environment, but…straws?
So: I think these bans are a mistake. I wouldn’t guess that the political price liberals pay for these by justifying conservative grievances is worth the actual gain here, especially when that price can hurt our ability to gain political power to accomplish actually meaningful things.
Dunno how to answer really. Politically it’s probably a mistake and practically I don’t see why straws should be singled out, the targeting of it is possibly government overreach instead of broader indirect measures to encourage recycling, reuse and biodegradable materials and again the reaction to it is a problem. It almost seems like a false flag kind of thing is possible.
Most of the places I go to use paper straws or a certain type of hay straw. I’ve never had much issue with either, the paper ones usually last me for 3-4 mixed drinks and the hay ones work longer but if you bite your straw at all they crack easier
It could well be though that the real long term effect is positive. Though this brings out the reactionaries it’s also getting a ton of attention and in 5 years it may well be that the net effect is that broader moves, whether by law or custom, against single use plastic are taken.
I only want(ed) a straw when driving and since I almost only drink water at ff places anymore and I have a water bottle in the truck, I don’t use straws much at all. But back in my diet coke days, I always had one going into the car.
It’s putting the burden of the smallest possible environmental change on the common person while doing nothing about the massive corporations destroying our world.
Almost all of these types of measures are performative theater, the bulk of waste is industrial and getting people to make individual changes is a drop in the bucket.
straw bans are essentially like the TSA, completely ineffective but it looks like someone is DOING SOMETHING.
Industry doesn’t just do industrious things for no one. It’s all for individuals to consume. The bulk of waste is generated because people consume things that cause waste to produce and dispose of.
Like I said in my first post, I don’t think straws in particular are that big an item. There’s more plastic in other places even. But, it’s also hard to predict what the effect of this will be, counter-reaction or increased awareness and cutting back on plastic use.
