We should rename Solar to Patriot Power to make it palatable to the right

satanmat@lemmy.world to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 761 points –

The Left is doing it wrong.

We need to stop calling it the green New Deal; and call it the Patriot Power Act.

We’re not trying to go green or “Woke”. No! We’re making ’Merca energy independent! We’ll stop importing oil from the tourist countries! And be energy self sufficient!

—BRANDING!!

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Or....stop defining everything as left/right and make things for people. Stop the divide, it's what 'they' want.

Yes. I was amazed that anyone was able to make a vaccine political.

And some of the other kookiness from Qanon and similar really makes me wonder about the mental health of the general public.

It’s when I started looking for answers on mass psychosis. I’m still unclear on the how.

Did you end up finding evidence of mass psychosis actually happening?

Interesting you mentioned that. Salem witch trials, Jonestown, Raelians were mentioned. Not all victims of the inquisition/witch trials were, some were accused for vexing the wrong person. I can’t imagine some issue didn’t plague most suicide or even murder cults’ members. The perpetrators would seem to fit criteria for psychopaths.

Maybe ideological subversion by Russia for the last 40 years?

It’s not just Russia. Governments propagandize their own, including Western ones. Recall Snowden, Assange, Manning, and with the help of “reputable” news. False flags. I think now we’re just to the point where any sane person doubts most of what they hear and should doubt most of what they see. But we crave order and cling to the narrative that seems to make the most sense to our own minds’ peculiarities. Some are certainly closer to true than others but there are a lot of politicians throwing rocks and hiding hands. As I said elsewhere: absolutely everything is based on money and appearances.

The media is full of all types of "news" but people don't seek out and objectively analyze truth, they seek "news" and "science" that fits their preconceived notions and parade it around as truth.

I was in Barnes and noble today and there’s a whole bookshelf in the new non-fiction section from a bunch of conservative personalities with crazy books about trusting Q, knowing how to believe in Q, how Biden has ruined America but trump will return and save us, all sorts of delusional shit.

The mental capacity of the general public has always been poor because there are some extremely dumb and gullible skewing it from just basic people, these grifters selling these delusional books and ideas is what’s making this worse. Being allowed to call your political opponents demons and saying your leaders are all chosen by god on high should be banned in political discourse

That is just not how it works. I wish it was, but someone will always make literally whatever political

Need to get rid of first past the post voting. It incentives two polarized parties. Maybe ranked choice instead?

As long as money can control politics it will. Post scarcity might fix it someday, but so many things have to happen before then—that will disadvantage vested interests—that it’s hard to imagine humanity making it there.

Online, there's always this division and blame on either the left or right. In my real life experience amongst friends, people are more willing to have a normal conversation about different opinions without all the outrage like I see online.

Where is this magical realm, because it surely isn’t where I am.

Definitely not my experience. I live in a “blue” area but …. A friend up north gets worked up about vaccines, and his wife runs a daycare! He’s educated and intelligent but has entirely off-base assumptions. My brother in the Midwest works for a car manufacturer …. still thinks electric vehicles are a fad that don’t work and never will. “Look around you” does not compute because it’s “just Tesla” and everyone knows they have poor uplift and loosing tons of money and only survisipve on government handouts

Was that an us-and-them argument against us-and-them arguments?

Stop the divide, it's what 'they' want.

You're sending some conflicting signals, my Mac

Companies are not people, so no...I'm not.

Political agendas are also not human, so again I'm still not.

You're one of those that love to cause divide.

That sounds nice but, much like the name for these bills, it's not reality.

And we can call wind farms, "Jesus Farms!"

And vaccines can be "immunity guns". Want to keep your kids safe? Give their immune system guns!

Keep on going. You’re good at this.

Next, try to come up with suitable branding for teaching stem literacy and critical thinking.

You mean "Gun Manufacturing" (Mechanical Engineering), "Bunker Building" (Civil Engineering), "Things Hitting Things" (Physics), "Explosives, Toxins, and Poisons" (Industrial Chemistry), "DIY Alternative Medicine" (Pharmaceutical Chemistry), "Owning the Libs" (Law), "Ripping off the IRS" (Taxation and Accounting), "How to be Offensive" (Language theory, reading/writing comprehension), "How to win at Gambling" (Mathematics, Statistics) "Why Libs Think Like Pussies" (Philosophy), "War" (Geography, Geo-politics, International Studies).

It’s those libtards and their hot air. Let’s use that nonsense to power good old ‘Murican homes and factories

minecraft 1.20.1 java edition vanilla Jesus farm (75 jesus/h)

Democrats suck at branding.

Private companies do not, though: https://www.sempersolaris.com/

Veteran owned, uses made in America parts, offers military discounts and they have a program where they do free installs for struggling vets.

Their tagine is "declare your independence from the power company"

I interviewed for a job with them once and they actually sounded very competent too

Maybe they're good at branding, but they suck at marketing.

If your product exists, fills a niche, solves a problem, and is the right price, but no one is buying it, then you suck at marketing.

Immigrants don't want you to have solar power. Especially brown people. I bet you can't even fit a solar panel on your emotional support vehicle.

Solar power makes you indepenent. Obama can't shut off your electricity during jade helm 2 if you produce it yourself.

Plus, coal plants are putting chemicals into the air to feminize and chemically lobotomize alpha males.

Has anyone noticed how the total population of trans people tracks almost perfectly with adoption of industrialized economies? There must be a connection.

Patriot Power is real, and it really sucks. It's the solar power offerings through 4Patriots, weak-ass off-brand Chinese batteries & weak, overpriced solar panels. The only good things 4Patriots offers is survival food & sun kettles.

There are plenty of people on the right who would love energy independence, but problems include cost, infrastructure, and implementation. I'm team solar panel/nuclear power, but every few years...the solar panel tech gets way better than it EVER was. So when is the right time to plunk down tens of thousands of dollars?? It's just now starting to get really good.

Wind turbines are also getting much better. And it's about damn time.

The biggest financial problem is energy storage solutions, spend $5-10K per battery, and have it lose 40% of its effectiveness after 5 years?? Yeah, no thanks, I'm not an idiot.

But we're coming up with (ACTUAL, WORKING, COST-EFFECTIVE) solutions for that problem, too. Sand, gravity, and waterfall batteries.

All this to say, the technology is just now starting to get serious traction & legs under it. ¯\(°_o)/¯ It's not ready...until it's ready. The 'greenest' things we can do, right now, involve reducing our usage & upping our efficiencies (via new windows/doors, insulation). That's the smart money.

I just heard about gravity "batteries" that involve lifting concrete blocks to store potential energy, then dropping them to generate electricity with a turbine. It's probably the most interesting thing I've heard of in a while and such a clever way to store energy without needing a battery.

The math doesn't really work out for gravity batteries. A fifteen ton block dropping 100 feet releases about a kwh of energy.

Or you could just have $150 worth of lithium batteries.

How much energy is released is not as important as the ratio of how much it takes to lift vs. lower (AKA "efficiency")

This. Thanks for doing the math. The only way it makes any real sense is if you a have geographical features that can store the energy. Ie right near a mountain and a large body of water high up. And even with that, it often only makes economical sense at exsisting dams where you can pump the water back into the reservoir and the generation systems is already paid for and in place.

See I've been skeptical about the gravity battery, too. I'm glad to see it developed, toyed with, but I like very simple ideas with very few, if any, moving parts. Gravity battery? Moving parts, cables. Would be a nightmare to work on if it broke down, possibly dangerous with the stored potential energy.

Much safer: sand battery. BTUs are expensive, you're probably heating your water, and depending on the winter climate where you live, you are using electricity to convert to BTUs so you can heat your home/not die. I say skip the middle man!! Convert the extra energy generated from solar/wind/whatever....store it in the fucking sand as heat.

I also look at the sand battery's simplicity, serviceability from a post-nuke/EMP/grid-down/post-apocalyptic standpoint. Should I be unfortunate enough to survive. It's so...practical. Solar panels should only get hit <15% damage from EMP. It gets the electricity. Sent to large copper rods, acting as heating elements. Heat the sand. 🙌🏻 Sand will cost a few thousand & never degrade. Rods, cheap enough, have some spares. Those shitty LiPO batteries play out during the apocalypse, as they literally always do? You're SOL.

first, it stores heat only. you can make it work with 1000L or so barrel of water and this gets you supply for days. second, you'd want this thing to service entire small community, because otherwise square-cube law fucks you hard. you need also all the auxiliary devices like heaters, pumps, control hardware that looks the same no matter if you make it work for your house or small village

That is correct, it stores heat only. A little bit about my situation: I have a drafty AF, 3200 sq ft farmhouse. Yes, I know I need to fix that....all things cost a lot of money, to do well.

A hot water tank tie-in would be excellent too, of course.

Additionally, I'd put the heated sand to work heating a large concrete driveway, a sidewalk in the winter months. While this can be classed as a "luxury", I view it as an investment in my health & well-being, as well as reducing risk & increasing my reliability. Eventually I'd like to throw up a polebarn style garage, with heated concrete pad, pull on the sand battery to heat that as well. Winter is a big problem where I live!! And a massive pain in my ass.

Please be kind, I've heard talk like this before, but tbh I don't know what it means: > "because otherwise square-cube law fucks you hard."

What does this mean? 🤔 ELI5? TIA, I like these convos. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Additionally, I’d put the heated sand to work heating a large concrete driveway, a sidewalk in the winter months

please invest in good winter shoes and shovel. first, you need massive amount of heat to warm up all that concrete and then melt ice, but it's not enough. you also have to get rid of liquid water entirely because otherwise it'll just freeze again but now it's glossy and flat surface of ice

square-cube law

when making sand battery, what you're actually interested in is mass of sand. however you can't conjure perfectly spherical globe of dirt suspended in vacuum, you have to put it somewhere. you need a tank, and one with hefty insulation. now: mass is proportional to volume, which is proportional to r^3 - cube. price of tank and amount of insulation needed is proportional to its surface - r^2 - square. the bigger you make it, the more sand you get per square meter of tank surface, meaning that storage costs go down with scale. that example from finland serves entire community for example

square-cube law provides some hard limitations on what is practical and what is not, for example it explains why big animals move slower than smaller ones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law

I have plenty of boots & shovels. 😂 Again, it's not a matter of "luxury"...I am concerned about both personal health & the snow being gone in a timely fashion after a snowfall.

Men who shovel snow are at an increased risk for heart attacks. And that's just heart trouble; let's not forget general sprains, strains, & aches. Possible slip-and-falls, I can't imagine having a bad fall when I'm in my 70s, 80s+.We often see a few significant snow events per year, and to have a surefire way to automatically melt it would be great.

To be fully transparent about my situation...I have a big-ass tractor, too. I can clear the snow without physical exertion. But it's over at another property, and after a fresh snowfall, I sometimes have to "schedule" time with the tractor jockeying against my parents & my sister, BIL. Annoying.

...but that's not all, with the tractor method. Extremely, dangerously cold situations can even become too cold for tractors to operate. The diesel will gel unless more questionable additives, methods are used. Operating a tractor is not free, either, and puts more hours on an expensive piece of machinery. There have also been maybe 4 times where I'm clearing the snow, and some kid is on the road in his $2K car, and gets way too close to my $90K tractor when we're all slogging in terrible, soggy/cold/poor visibility conditions. I'm always polite, of course, but then they leave & I audibly bellow to myself I don't fucking need this. I don't!! Why should I haggle with family, operate this good equipment, around the general public if I could avoid that entirely with a heated concrete driveway?

So the only real concern with the square-cube law is physical space occupied, and/or cost. Space isn't an issue on the farm. 🤠 And sand by the ton is cheap. I was personally thinking about digging a big-ass hole to hold the sand. Line it with junk bricks and/or more concrete, only put money into an insulated "cap".

The water left on the driveway is an interesting thought, but the driveway won't be perfectly flat. It'll have a downward slant, towards the road. If you think it's enough of an issue, I could maybe put some designs in the concrete that route snow melt run-off off the concrete & into some grass on either side. I know people that heat driveways & they're fine/dry; it can be done, I'll ask around. I know it's marketed as a luxury, but I want heated driveways normalized.

I DO need a lot of heat for this heated driveway, I know it's ambitious, but I have plenty of reasons for wanting it. Outlined above. Heart attacks/hospital visits? Expensive, waste of time. Tractors, "sharing" operation costs, risk of accidents...expensive. Waste of time. I'm going to pay any way you look at it. Why not pay for a recirculating heat pump, its operation & watch my problems literally melt away??

you need a lot of insulation on all sides. putting it all above ground would be easier because of no risk of groundwater ingress. structural steel container, fire-resistant brick and lots and lots of mineral wool around (we're talking about insulating red-hot (600C) sand so that it stays hot for months). we're talking about several tons of dirt suspended above ground and insulated on all sides, including bottom. you could put that heat to better use if it stays contained within another insulated container, that is as a hot water source or for space heating. these things are not free, and this comes before any heaters, pumps, piping, automation needed for it to work

if you want to go for a solution, then all good, but for it to be practical you also need to make sure it's better than alternatives. i think that getting another tractor would be cheaper and more practical in your situation

Yes. And it works.

It's called a Dam.

The catch is we spend 0 energy on the upstream water.

Timberborn has those, it's a city builder game with beavers.

Energy storage is THE issue…. You want to be a billionaire? Figure that out.

Pumped hydro, is great, but there are very few places where it is feasible

there are many nifty ways to do it. i like molten silicon for example https://silbat.com

but how about shift in perspective? if you want to get in on all renewable power source, maybe it's you who should adjust power consumption a little bit instead? fortunately most of energy used is used up for heating, and you can plug all excess energy into heater, store energy in big barrel of water for all your heating needs, and skim electrical power when available + maybe batteries as a higher priority

if you want to get in on all renewable power source, maybe it's you who should adjust power consumption a little bit instead?

What makes you think they haven't already?

in some places energy for individual customer is cheaper at night, but the real deal is with large industrial power consumers, like arc furnaces or aluminum smelting plants. these things have special arrangements that allow grid operator to regulate some % of power in return for cheaper energy, either by remote control or on schedule. in principle the same thing could work for thousands to millions of water heaters, making it work like a large, one way "battery" soaking up peaks in energy production

but do you need stored large amounts of electric energy? most of energy use is in form of heat for space heating and hot water, and for storage of that all you need is big barrel with multiple heat exchangers (coiled pipes + baffles). put in heat from solar concentrators, heat pump maybe, furnace and you're good in all situations

problems only really begin if you want to start up welder on cold winter night

other than that, generate energy from solar + wind turbine, top up battery, dump excess in heat pump or water heater. have small petrol generator to service surge capabilities. this will be enough in majority of cases. this is also the logic national energy grids operate on, with the difference that you can't set up pumped hydro storage in your backyard, most of the time

problems only really begin if you want to start up welder on cold winter night

or try to cook dinner on your induction stove. A good hot water storage should reduce the need for electrical power storage but won't eliminate it

The government used to invest in such things for their citizens but I guess a well-educated, fed, homed citizenry isn’t considered a good roi anymore, not to mention adequately staffed public care facilities. Yes i know i heard about what Biden and nursing homes. Funny thing is, that was the norm thirty years ago, and restaurant employees got a free meal. If they worked a shift and other things we don’t have anymore, because regulation is Satan and fu they got theirs, and the dollar went further. I keep seeing blaring ads about government assistance for solar panels but they seem sus.

Maybe see what you find online, but will you be charged for not using your energy provider?

So here's the deal, in a nutshell:

I'm afraid if I "go public" with my goddamn private solar energy setup, AKA I opt into a grid tie-in deal where I feed my excess electric back into the grid, I pay extra for setup. And IIRC my electric provider charges monthly for the "privilege" of tie-in. And these are just the devils we know about! I take the money, I subject my system & my property to scrutiny from third party companies & my state, who knows what stupid shit they might come up with & force onto me.

The best, simplest, cleanest solution I can think of is to privately install enough renewable energy to power my home. And a robust energy storage system that can power my needs when the sun isn't shining, wind isn't blowing, etc.

IIRC my electric provider charges $10 or $20, monthly, whether you use their electric or not. <=$240 annually? I call that a small price to pay for energy independence with the insurance of an established electric provider able to take over if system(s) fail.

Alternatively, if renewable energy production/STORAGE options become better & more reasonable in cost, just overbuild like hell & go fully off-grid. Discontinue electric service. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's tempting...had a blackout just last night. 😂

Forgot to address the gov assist stuff, it's legit actually, but it's not exactly the boon normies think it is. So you buy & install solar, with evidence, you document everything & jump through all their little hoops. When you meet their requirements, you're given a 30% or whatever 'credit' on your federal income taxes. Which isn't exactly free money, but it's better than a kick in the head & it's rewarding you for going solar.

Now you wanna talk fucking sus??? All those third-party solar installers, namely, those that "will install for free" or "costs you nothing out of pocket 🤗". Those guys are sus as all hell. They're predatory, they're not trying to help you! Only enrich themselves. Again, IIRC, sometimes they take your gov't tax credit money somehow. And/or they charge you monthly, or they take money/power you generate via the solar panels...I don't trust any of it; you're inviting random-ass people onto your property & they're installing thousands of dollars in gear you don't technically own, and you're pressing your property into servitude until it's "paid off" in 10, 15, 20 years. Don't do it. Buy it, own it, get all the benefits for yourself.

Yeah it’s bs to have to pay for feeding energy back to the grid and bs people scam people to install anything. It’s bs we still subsidize anything that’s a legit utility/need for the corporate robber barons instead of individual families who otherwise can’t afford needs.

when is the right time to plunk down tens of thousands of dollars??

Yesterday

They already kinda do that, at least in my area. There's a company that advertises on AM radio called Semper Solaris and they go hard on the support the troops/vets angle with their sales pitch. It's pretty cringe, but it must work because they keep their advertisements running pretty much every commercial break. Not that you need to try very hard to convince a Californian to get solar panels installed on their roof. "Make the sun pay your entire electric bill" is also pretty effective advertising.

You just have to tell them oil is dug up by brown people and solar is made by white people.

I'm sure they can think up a new name for it themselves...

We can take it further... Light comes from the heavens, the domain of the lord almighty. Oil comes from the depths of hell on earth, domain of the devil. Do the right thing Christians, just like you always have, support the anti-devil white people solar power alliance.

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Seriously though, the German liberal party (FDP) has dubbed renewable energy “freedom energy”.

Would absolutely work in USA.

The word patriot is like a button for mind control.

Do the same for wind power, tell em the blades only kill immigrant birds or something.

It's true. I hear those geese didn't get a visa when they came here from Canada.

The issue isn't in the name. The issue is that a lot of people just don't even want to know what any of this is, and blindly voting for something is bad, no matter how you look at it.

Screaming "woke" at everything is a cultural/educational issue, so I'd rather see resources being spent on that

I'm pretty sure I've seen "Patriot" type branding for massive battery backups targeting preppers.

For sure, I got one from a family member, the solar panel only put out 15W with no load drawn. The battery was pinched in the casing as well. I was surprised to see it did have proper voltage protection, though.

We do kinda need to remind people that the founders fought for freedom, fair representation and equality under the law. We are the real patriots, fighting for the same.

Terms and conditions applied, it was mostly for wealthy, white men.

The job was left unfinished, which is fine. They had no better consensus than we do today, a reflection of how the struggle is much slower and longer than just our story.

Sure. A more perfect union. I’m just more interested in not idealizing anymore. Light or dark projections are both problematic.

I.know you meant well op. <3

Thanks. Actually it was my son's idea. Watching the R debate one of the ads was for a solar batteries backup generator... And we could not stop laughing that it was the Patriots power!

How about slapping something gun-related on it, like that Black Rifle company?

Call it the MAPA

Make America Powerful Again

Tbf, thats actually not a bad idea.

Democrats desperately need better marketing, they should hire that dude. Anyone could be doing a better job than whomever they are using.

I remember when even the far majority on the right thought Freedom Fries was a stupid thing.

Right. I remember my parents being Democrat and a lot less othering. No more.

I remember trying to always understand those “others”, but in recent years reality intervenes. Just like I always thought I had a good reputation for k owledge, knowing the facts, regardless of my politics, yet knowing facts now seems like a liability in certain discussions

I hear you. What I mean by othering is they didn’t hate other races, genders, intelligence in general. Those things may as well be Satan, now. Right up to Iraq. Then Obama got elected and they went off the deep end.

Why do people have to be like this? Why can't they just accept something without it having to be labeled in terms that appeal to their sensibilities? Why can't they just be honest?

Everyone has priorities somewhere, so for some it's a matter of "looking after one's own first", truly believing that other countries/people aren't doing their part and not being willing to give their own (people's) means up when they would still suffer consequences either way.

I think a lot of it is the "fake news" thing, where the people they respect are telling them that everyone else is lying, and they believe it. Once you're in that mentality, it's almost impossible to get out of it because anyone trying to get you to leave is one of the liars. People have to try to convince themselves they are wrong, try to convince themselves the other side has the right of it and to understand the other position, but they also have to choose that path for themselves in those worst cases.

And people are 100% willing to put that childish need to defend their own ego over everything else, even their own lives and the people they claim to love.

They are willing to let themselves and other people suffer just so they can feel they are right about something.

That's what you're telling me. Right?

No hate, no vitriol, serious question.

They are willing to let themselves and other people suffer just so they can feel they are right about something.

Some don't think anyone's going to suffer (or suffer more from one choice vs the other). They believe the people that say things like the ipcc are not just wrong but lying. And they often lack the tools to verify for themselves. This is worrying because they really have good reasons to think the things they do. Giving them more information doesn't help because they have an internally good reason to think you're lying (or being lied to, at least).

The people up top, who are saying the wrong things in the first place, who do have the tools to investigate their truth and are continuing to repeat them... I can't understand their motivations as other than monumentally selfish.

The people on the top have a variety of internal justifications for what they're doing. Some say that the world is "dog eat dog" and that they are the only ones looking out for themselves. Others say that what they're doing is for some grander good that will come once they acquire enough wealth and power. Some are deluded enough they have convinced themselves they are telling the truth. That and many more justifications fly through the heads of the ultra-wealthy and powerful as they continue spreading misinformation and enriching themselves.

Call it Reagan Power

Modern repubs consider his form of conservatism outdated. It's not nearly hateful enough.

Freedom power, you can just walk outside and get bathed in freedom.

This, we need a Democrat who wears a baseball cap and "Totally gets you bro"

The smug holier than that routine is not going to work

"We should change things so those assholes will be better" boy do I have news for you!

You give them too much power.

I hate that you're right.

It's actually funny that we/they haven't been all about oil independence after the 70s oil embargo. More nuclear plants. Long term research into fusion, solar, battery tech. It would have been so much easier now.

Call it Portable Patriot Power so people don't have to repay their loan for them.

Even my Tesla and Prius driving neighbors don’t have solar panels on their roof. The math doesn’t really make sense yet for most residential installations.

Even for people with houses in locations where it makes sense, let alone those with sufficient roof space, it is a massive investment that will maybe zero-out on itself within a decade. And that's all complete speculation too

But those are just facts and you’re using logic. You’re even implying it’s a good idea when the numbers make sense.

I live in an area that’s not the greatest for solar, but it has state incentives to help encourage adoption. The argument is whether to expect payback after 12 years or after 4. I’m not planning to live in my current house in 12 years

It’s also a bit of a misdirection, because wind and solar at industrial scale are well proven to have a strong payback. There are people who don’t let their beliefs get in the way of a good business case, but there are still a very loud minority who will not believe it

right winger here. We love off grid solar power. We don't quite understand why the left loves the massive pollution aspect of it though. I thought you guys were anti pollution?

You assert that "the left loves the massive pollution aspect of it" and expect someone to take you seriously? I hope you are trolling, because this statement isn't very well thought out. My understanding of the majority leftist energy position is that renewables like solar are preferable to burning hydrocarbons because of a lower lifetime environmental footprint. Do you have a different understanding of how leftists think?

of course it's a troll, but it's true. Mining for material and manufacturing solar panels is incredibly dirty, and the massive water use to clean them all the time is not environmentally friendly.