Comment by kstrauser | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kstrauser | Hacker News Reader

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I am very, very sympathetic to the people of Texas. There are a lot of decent folks in a terrible situation solely because of their awful and incompetent politicians.

The schadenfreude I feel is at the blowback these same politicians are getting for their idiotic statements:

- Ex-mayor Tim Boyd forced into resignation after saying "if you were sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising!" about his constituents? Hilarious!

- Gov. Greg Abbott getting raked over the coals for blaming his failures on California? Keep it coming!

- Sen. Ted Cruz being called out for previously saying "California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity"? Inject that right into my veins.

There are lots of good people in Texas. There are also lots of decent, hardworking, well-meaning politicians. I'm not enjoying these nice people having to suffer. I am very much enjoying the self-inflected suffering from the handful of visible idiots in charge.

"I am very much enjoying the self-inflected suffering"

This seems like something that would be very bad if applied to everyone. Perhaps I'd get hate for saying this in 2021, but I'd prefer a society where no one enjoys anyone else's suffering, no matter how much they dislike that person or feel that they 'deserved' it. I want a world with less suffering for everyone, not more.

Ted Cruz voted against aid for the NE after Hurricane Sandy and was pretty quick to ask for FEMA assistance after both Hurricane Harvey and this self-inflicted catastrophe.

Some people deserve it. He's one of them.

The fact of the matter is that those in charge, who made the decisions that led to this, are at best, "suffering" political consequences. They aren't suffering the same way that the people of Texas are suffering.

Politicians who let their constituents freeze to death deserve no sympathy. This isn't "just" a blackout people have already died from it.

Their "suffering" is being embarrassed and looking like idiots. It's not like they're being tortured.

I'd say the suffering they meant was political and not referring to environmental conditions. The governor's residence almost certainly has its own source of back up power. Ted Cruz is on vacation in Mexico. I doubt most of the higher up politicians have been suffering too much from lack of heat or power.

You're correct. They're facing political fallout over their public statements and I'm enjoying that. I 100% would not find it amusing if their kids had to eat cold beans because their power was out.

If they suffer the consequences of their own actions / inaction, they have a chance to learn and improve.

> There are a lot of decent folks in a terrible situation solely because of their awful and incompetent politicians.

Politicians are elected. If the people don't approve, they have a recourse. People pile on Texas (or insert favorite punching bag of the day) because the majority (or plurality in voting) asked for these people to represent them.

It's more complicated than that when one party has outsized representation because of political tricks like gerrymandering. In the 2020 election, 90% as many people voted for Biden as for Trump. That's still a sizable gap but it's not like Texas is entirely single-party, and definitely not in the way that Wyoming is.

A huge portion of Texans are enduring an artificial catastrophe who did not vote for any of the politicians who caused it. Although I feel bad for everyone going through it, I feel especially bad for them.

As someone who lives in Texas, I am hoping now fellow Texan will lean blue. Hopefully, we will remember this when next elections are up.

More power to ya, so to speak.

But seriously, we're pulling for you to get through this and fix the underlying issues. I don't want to see my countrymen suffering from entirely avoidable reasons!

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