this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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Trees are woke. Let that sink in.
JJ902 said so himself.
Electricity is such a gay concept. Why would any conservative care for thar?
Without knowing anything about the issue, I can guarantee Tennessee energy policies are to blame. And if I had to guess, it's probably the fault of favoring "free market" over "reasonable regulation" and consumer protection type policies.
Fuck, when did late stage capitalism become woke?
The extreme nature of the storm is the direct result of climate change, but that's probably too "woke" for them to understand as well.
Oh so Republicans are woke now?
Clearly all those gay bars and drag shows used up too much electricity.
Clearly ICE is to blame here, but reality is too woke, better stay in slumber.
“It’s certainly not a conservative value to leave the trees hanging around power lines that will fall during a storm,” he said.
He seems to be saying it's a Democrat value to do things wrong on purpose?
It's a terrible terrible sign that tree trimming is being viewed through this partisan lens.
And it most definitely is a Republican value. That is the result of tax cuts, you get worse public services.
Why don't you guys, you know, bury the power lines?
Hanging electric wires from wooden poles is wild to me. They do that in some rural parts of Europe.
Cost, because distances involved with how spread out the US is. And because Capitalism of course.
It's about priorities, not cost. And to an extent I suspect it's about culture, too.
I'm not talking about how to connect distant towns to each other, that's done with power lines. But in one-family home suburbia it's easy to provide underground power as a utility. You've already got your plumbing underground, just add a pipe for wires.
No, he's complaining that Democrats value trimming trees right (to maintain the long-term health of the tree) instead of indiscriminately butchering them to get them clear of the power lines as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Tree trimmers are not thinking to themselves "is this how a Republican or a Democrat would trim a tree?" They're cutting like they were trained to do. Politics could not be less involved.
I've trimmed trees on federal land, this exactly.
Yes, except that training to care about tree health instead of only cost/efficiency is a thing Democrats do.
The training isn't political, but which training gets chosen is.
My blue ass state is constantly trimming trees around power lines. I've worked cutting trees on state land, but the electric company itself does the power lines, the state makes certain they maintain it. They'll prep for storms like this well in advance. I've been sad for some of the trees I've seen taken (gorgeous old trees have a place in my heart), but it's for the best sometimes.
Historically blue state, We don't get power outages often, and if it occurs they are resolved quickly. "Which training gets chosen" it's the one that maintains the grid, thats the training that gets chosen.
Nobody does trainings on tree health. That's not how any of this works. They do apprenticeships. Once they finish they're basically free to do whatever they want.
You're the one who doesn't know how any of this works. Haven't you ever heard of an arborist? They even have a professional standards organization that offers certifications and everything.
More to the point, the article references this interview where somebody from the electric company apparently describes their pruning standards. If you think such standards don't exist, explain WTF you think is going on in the interview!
That's someone describing an occupation that they have no idea about. Arborist is the step above journeyman tree trimmer. There are specific rules about what an Arborist is allowed to do vs. what a regular tree trimmer is allowed to do. Mainly working within certain distances of powerlines. Kinda like how EMT Paramedic is the step above EMT Basic. There isn't anything "woke" going on in tree trimming. Just like there isn't anything "woke" happening at paramedic school.
Okay, I don't think you understand the point I was making.
I'm not saying I think there's anything "woke" about tree trimming, or that having certified arborists who know what the fuck they're doing is somehow a bad thing -- the notion is ludicrous.
What I'm doing is explaining why they (Republican morons) claim there's something "woke" about tree trimming (i.e. explaining the kernel of truth that they're twisting out of proportion to form the basis of their lie), and how they're wrong.
Going back to the beginning, you wrote...
"He seems to be saying it’s a Democrat value to do things wrong on purpose?"
....and I was explaining how, although that's what the Republican moron might claim, it's ass-backwards compared to factual reality.
What he's actually saying is that it's a Democrat value to do things right on purpose, and complaining about it. That's an even more insane and broken mentality than you gave him credit for.
To continue your EMT analogy, it's like if Republican morons were bitching and moaning that trained paramedics were a thing, and wanted ambulances to be staffed by quacks doing bloodletting and trying to balance bodily humours instead. (Which, with RFK Jr. in charge, probably isn't far off!)
There is nothing political about this. At all. There are trees. They need to be cut within a certain distance of the line. Budges get cut, they get behind, and a tree they thought they'd trim again in 2 years becomes one that causes a power outage 3 years later. That's how it goes.
There's not a left or right wing way to trim a tree. There's a correct way and a wrong way. It's about how many miles they need to do in how much time.
You're imagining an argument about fast and efficient vs. slow and careful. In reality they're highlighting the dangerous trees and making sure those ones get done in ideal weather, and the others can get done in less than ideal weather. It gets done at the speed it gets done.
Again, it could not be less political.
Except it is, because the Republicans make it political.
There's not a left or right wing way to trim a tree. There's a correct way and a wrong way. It's about how many miles they need to do in how much time.
Yeah, and the Republicans want to force it to be done wrong while claiming the opposite. It's nonsense, but you can't deny the nonsense exists.
It only takes one side to politicize.
These contracts are short, like 1-2 years. Typically you re-trim every 2 years. So if you do a terrible job and then get outbid 2 years later, you basically walk away with money and leave the next contractor with extra work. That's the typical situation. That's often how these sorts of disasters happen. Someone underbid and then couldn't deliver. Now it's the taxpayer's problem.
Again, it's not political. Someone underbid. Someone accepted the underbid. The contractor that underbid couldn't accomplish the task. Now they're behind. Where are you seeing a left and right in this?
Certified arborists aren’t real? You ever got a quote from an arborist versus a redneck with a chainsaw? Guess who the cities will hire if there’s no oversight?
Seems like it's different in about half the country. Interesting.
Yes. Based on if you value getting the job done, or getting the job done right. My mom just lost a bunch of nice trees in front of her house. The city wanted to save money and destroy the character of the neighborhood, so they did. There’s a law preventing home owners from doing their own trimming. And the city is too cheap to do it right. So you get destruction of property value and shittier neighborhoods for it. 4 Generations of kids walked to school under those trees but the city probably saved $3,000 to remove them for the next 4 generations. Great success
Why the hell would Tennessee’s electrical grid be all woke, anyway? Are these people totally powerless before the might of the treehuggers? I cannot believe their shameless victim bleating.
The only saving grace to that quote is it is from a Michael Lotfi, the deputy state director of Americans for Prosperity Tennessee, a conservative group. A man of no office or consequence.
A little statement like that will travel to Twitter, and get picked up by Fox News, where it will be adopted by a sitting president or senator
Who do you think finances and writes legislation for the people in power? Usually little right wing think tanks.
These people are mentally broken.
I do not understand it.
They're in a cult.
Specifically, an outright death cult.
Juat think of them like a deranged hivemind.
They're just opportunists using any means they can to score political brownie points.
This Democratic mayor would be better served pointing out the fallacies in Republican arguments than kowtowing to Republican pressure and blaming the limited number of utility workers for not completing this monumental task fast enough. He could point out that Blackburn and Co. have been sitting on this 'DEI training' and 'tree trimming cutback' nonsense waiting for something like this to happen rather than acting upon it if they truly believed it was a risk to the grid. How else would she and her cronies have this information to pull out of their ass the instant something bad happens?
They aren't. They know exactly what they're doing. They know it's bullshit, but every other MAGA will treat it like gospel.
The same party that blamed the texas blackout on the only sources of power that actually stayed operational.
Must really suck donkey ass to be infected with the broke mind virus.
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