It’s the afternoon on the East Coast. If you’re not already Winning the Day, it’s too late to try, but if you are, perhaps it’s because you read your Axios this morning. And if you did, you’d know that all this Green New Deal stuff pushed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the only member of Congress, is officially NOT genocide.
In a story about Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah calling the proposal “tantamount to genocide” on Thursday, the site, known for its bulleted, easily-digested style, pointed out this is incorrect (emphasis mine):
Driving the news: Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said the ideas behind the progressive policy are “tantamount to genocide. That may be an overstatement but not by a whole lot,” Bishop said at a press conference Thursday morning on Capitol Hill.
Reality check: The Green New Deal is not at all related to genocide, which is defined as “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” Instead, it’s a sweeping progressive goal, supported by prominent freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and many Democrats, of reducing greenhouse gas emissions along with other policies, like a federal jobs guarantee and universal healthcare.
The dictionary defines genocide as [DEFINITION FROM DICTIONARY.COM], while the definition of “Green New Deal” is NOT genocide. Fact-checking wins the day yet again.
But what’s perhaps even more wild about this story is that Axios’ reporter, Amy Harder, grabbed Bishop to expand on those remarks. Here was their exchange, per the site (emphasis theirs):
Axios: Genocide is defined as “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” How is the Green New Deal like genocide?
Bishop: I’m an ethnic. I’m a westerner.
Axios: And you think the Green New Deal is going to kill you?
Bishop: If you actually implement everything they want to. Killing would be positive if you implement everything the Green New Deal actually wants to. That’s why the the Green New Deal is not ready for prime time.
“I’m an ethnic,” old white guy says. You know what actually will cause mass death? The not-too-distant fallout from irreversible climate change. It’s because of people like Bishop that we won’t get anything that’s even one-tenth of the Green New Deal passed. But at least we can look forward to the Axios post as we fight our neighbors for water, Mad Max style: Republican lawmaker says it’s just warm this summer, but, REALITY CHECK: We’re all being roasted alive, right this second.