do you also consider those who consume oil and gas products as evil?
In much of the world, fossil fuel usage has been heavily subsidized and alternatives actively opposed. I would not blame anyone who bought the car their society made necessary anywhere near as much as the people who saw a problem and prevented it being addressed at far less cost than it will now take. When Exxon first learned global warming was happening, it was the 1970s – a carbon tax, renewable fuels, transit investments, etc. would have been so much cheaper back then – but not for them, so they heavily funded efforts to make the topic political, told everyone it wasn’t real and you shouldn’t feel a need to buy a fuel efficient vehicle, and successfully stymied action for half a century.
I mean, the average SUV sold now gets much worse mileage than the car my dad bought to commute in the 80s - simply staying on that curve would have bought us a decade or two.
What oil companies have done is certainly damaging to society - but let's please not lose sight of the fact that it is ultimately consumers who are calling the shots.
To me the truth is that we love convenience, enjoy travel and just having lots of stuff - hundreds of millions of people are fully aware of the effects of climate change and still choose to consume unbelievable amounts of oil, directly and indirectly. The title of Al Gore's "an inconvenient truth" is really quite apt - people watch and understand to then go on an fly across the globe.
If our image of the average citizen is that they are helpless in the face of propaganda/advertising, cannot think for themselves and cannot be held accountable for their behavior/decisions, then I don't believe that's compatible with a democratic system.
Consumers/voters have responsibility and corporations stand and fall based on how we all choose to spend our money. The one-sided criticism of oil companies is boring and almost childish in the way it deflects responsibility.
The geopolitics of energy: What's easy to forget about subsidies is that enormous shock the western world has gone through in 1973 - suddenly the oil stopped flowing and leaders everywhere figured out how vulnerable industrial societies are to even slight disruptions in supply. We also have to consider the security and moral implications of relying on Saudi Arabia and Russia for most of our oil needs - claiming that politicians are supply corrupted by oil money just shows a lack of appreciation for the complexity of the situation.
Eating meat is bad for the climate (methane emissions - you know the drill) - if you consume meat again after reading this, please don't blame it on politics, McDonald's or a lack of knowledge.
And yeah 'democracy' the term the US used to invade countless of countries in the name of freedom, peace and democracy. What were the wars really about the last 20 to maybe 50 years? About private interest of oil.
The US democracy is nothing more then big industries calling the shots. Spreading so much propaganda people don't know what to believe any more.
50 years ago presidents were already shouting that they were going to cut back on fossil fuels. What happend there? If the US really was a democracy you would have had free healthcare by now. It's nothing more then a smoke screen.
And by now with the help of social media propaganda has become more of a psychological weapon. They know exactly what triggers specific individuals and how to steer them. If we keep trying to fool our self with this believe that people should just be come magically immune to propaganda and advertisement we are pretty domed.
I see lots of hate for oil companies, but not a lot for those who choose to fly a lot or drive gigantic cars. The F150 is America's best selling vehicle, passenger trains are basically unusable in North America, suburbia makes public transport impossible.
We live in a consumerist society where virtually every product we own or use contains plastic or has been shipped from the other side of the world, but we lay blame on those who extract the oil.
How convenient.