The Sorensen Monologues

Gas De-Rangement

For a decent summary on the risks of gas stoves, this Scientific American article is worth checking out. One recent study estimated that some 12.7 percent of childhood asthma cases were attributable to emissions from gas stoves. 

While bans on new construction are being considered in many places, and already exist in a few cities like Berkeley, no one is actually confiscating stoves. The right-wing freakout over “stove bans” is mostly hot air, serving the purpose of demonizing liberals and whipping up panic over imaginary “government overreach” when what we have here is a clear case of government underreach.

Help keep this work sustainable by joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon.

Man of the House

I actually find “Alpha influencers” to be morbidly fascinating, because they embody so much of the rising fascist movement — the obsession with gender, the fixation on performative masculinity, the notion that you are escaping “the Matrix” by adopting far-right extremist beliefs, the rejection of climate science and COVID as conspiracies. In this worldview, the true villains of late capitalism aren’t rapacious CEOs and Republicans who do their bidding in Congress, but feminists and anyone who would emasculate men. Ultimately these perverse ideologies serve the very corporate hegemony they claim to be freeing people from.

Help keep this work sustainable by joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon.

You Get What You Pay For

I’m back after using a few reruns over the holidays.

If you’re going to hoard the wealth of the nation and refuse to pay wages that allow people to afford housing, then you at least have to support subsidized worker housing and health care. You can’t have it both ways — denying people both a living wage and public programs to compensate for a lack of the former. Of course people are going to end up on the streets! While it’s true that actual pay is higher than the federal minimum wage in many places, the fact that it’s still stuck at $7.25 in 2023 is utterly shameful.

Help keep this work sustainable by joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon.