US Energy Dept. adds ‘climate change’ and ‘emissions’ to banned words list
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/28131779
In addition to “climate change” and “green,” EERE forbid officials from using “emissions” to avoid the implication that they are a negative. Climate change is caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions, which is driven primarily by burning oil, coal and natural gas for energy.
Other terms officials must ditch include “energy transition,” “sustainability/sustainable,” “‘clean’ or ‘dirty’ energy,” “Carbon/CO2 ‘Footprint’” and “Tax breaks/tax credits/subsidies.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/28/energy-department-climate-change-emissions-banned-words-00583649Open linkView original on lemmy.ca723
Comments94
Imagine being so invested in bullshit that you have to censor any and all terms that contradict it.
Really, it's no wonder that Trump and his cronies and minions are so filled with rage - they're in a constant state of extreme cognitive dissonance.
And it makes sense in a way that they direct their rage at "woke" people and positions. From their limited, animalistic points of view, all they understand is that when they think of "woke," they're filled with rage. They aren't conscious enough to understand that the source of the rage isn't the positions or the people, but the cognitive dissonance they experience when they cling to their opposition to simple and obvious truths.
It has to be a miserable way to live, and if they weren't an existential threat to me, my family and friends, and society as a whole, I'd feel sorry for them.
And that will be their own undoing. Fascists are fully driven by emotions. They are anti-liberal and anti-intellect after all.
It's odd to me that they even have a banned words list to begin with
I'm not American but I know American academics and they have told me they are being pulled into meetings and given lists of words they must not use. So much for all the "free speech" whining from Republicans.
"Free speech" for republicans is just "I want to say the worst hateful, racist, bigoted shit out loud without repercussions"
"And punish you for daring to think about 'policing' me by calling me out."
Conservatives are, and have always been, about power over others. We kept their more evil nature's focused externally for a while with cold war, but without an external threat to point them at, they always turn on their neighbors eventually.
The government is owned by billionaires and they ban words that make line go up slower.
Whoever has the biggest bunker wins.
I'm not sure how they mean it here. But "banned words" aren't always meaning censorship. In an academic or journalistic sense it can just mean replacing words with more accurate phrasing or more clearly defined words to ensure consistency.
Unfortunately, it's also used to spin a narrative or outright censor things as well. Like the NYT banning the word "genocide" during an active genocide.
Lol ok
It is, literally, a fascist government. Why is this surprising to anyone?
People who were paying attention warned that they would operate as a fascist government. People still thought it would be cool to vote 3rd party or not vote. Now it's happening.
Dude I voted for your lady chill out
Still can't believe the government has a banned word list for scientific reports.
They're just working up to banning science.
You mean banning
scienceliberal shit talk non facts?(how every conversation starts looking next year)
They have morons on both sides already eager to do that for them.
Remember when science could be debated? Now we just have to accept everything as fact without question if it supports the correct agenda.
Questioning science gets you banned, lol. It may as well be religion at that point.
Questioning what science gets you banned from what, by whom? Scientists question science all the time. That's how it progresses. You'd need to give examples to explain what you're referring to. And can you give an example when we're expected to simply "accept everything as fact without question"?
Edit: It has been a day. I guess there are no examples coming.
If one side of a discussion on facts has data and the other has opinions what is there to debate?
I remember a time when hard data was debatable - it was ten minutes ago. We're trapped in a timeline where data is disregarded in favour of comfortable lies.
Why address climate change if one can instead engage in mass self-deception.
That's literally not how science works or has ever worked
"Questioning science" is literally part of the scientific method. Every single scientist is constantly doing it.
It looks like “global warming” and “pollution” are back in the menu, boys!
It was almost 90°F here today. You can't tell me global warming doesn't also fucking apply to climate change.
It doesn't matter what doublespeak they use, it's still happening
How can you be so obtuse? Do you not recall when a US Senator brought a snowball onto the floor of the senate to completely disprove this hoax?
Just like the time we had a minister bring a lump of "clean coal" into the Australian parliament.
Pretty neat demonstration of how the world beyond their viewpoint doesn't exist.
It doesn't matter? Of course it fucking matters
Can't wait until enough people are upset that the guillotines come out.
There are very few things more terrifying than a civil war. Americans jumping straight to wishing for one, ignoring millions of less murdery ways to fix their country never stops creeping me out. You guys are deeply fucked in more ways then one.
To clarify: Not American
Soo, how exactly are you planning to fix the shitshow that the states are in rn? A leader heavily leaning to totalitarianism, most of executive power in the hands of his cronies, and you get shit like national guard unlawfully stationed in major cities, while censoring many of new-age issues and executive orders left and right that legalize bribery a remove power in order for him to stay in power.
And don't fucking say to "just vote". Apparently it didn't work so much last time.
Don't even get me started on trying to educate the people. 8 hours work, 1 hour commute, 8 hours sleep, taking care of kids, house, and you are left with like 4. What are you gonna do? Argue with paid trolls online and absolutely waste energy? Slip into people's DMs to talk about politics? Make videos that probably 10 people will see, at most?
Yeah, shit deal. Do you think it will be better if there will be a fucking war? Not "Good guys killed all the bad guys and there is a socialist utopia going on" war, those don't exist, more like "there is a tank where my living room used to be and all my family died in the last shootout" kind of war.
I lost my country long ago, we had our authoritarian resurgence a decade and a half ago, everyone was too apathetic to do anything, and those who tried got mocked by the likes of you, with their "ah, what are you gonna do, waste time arguing with people?". America is going the same route very quickly to the same tune.
If you want a broad answer to "what should I do", well, you aren't american, so nothing, focus on your country. Americans should do anything. It usually starts with building the community and identifying clear local goals, because you're correct that one person can do shit, a group of people with a political position however can do something.
4 hours? You and the person above are overestimating how much free time working parents have each day. I'm lucky to get 30 minutes, and I only get that because I'm hiding in the bathroom.
I'd love to legislatively fix all this.
But fascists aren't known for allowing fair elections.
So I think that ship sailed in November 2024 while a bunch of fucking losers were protest voting or not voting at all.
America was warned. America didn't listen.
Right?! The number of people who stayed home because "Kamila doesn't support Palestine enough." was insane. Leave it to us on the left to completely ignore existential problems if we're given the opportunity to prove to another leftist that they're not left enough, and only the most extreme left-wing opinions are legitimate.
Now we're doing only what they allow you? And you think it's easier to kill them all than overplay them in a legal game? So you've decided to not even try, and go straight to killing?
Guillotines don't mean civil war at all. Guillotines mean that the population at large has decided to act. They are deliberate, not something that suddenly stabs someone in the back or shoots them in the head. It takes time to set up. I wouldn't call them a weapon at all - they are a consequence.
(Partially paraphrasing from a post on another platform a long time ago. Only remember it vaguely.)
What is your best scenario to avoid civil war in the US? Offer a suggestion instead of just complaining. You seem passionate about this so surely you have some suggestions that absolutely should be attempted first
I already killed the billionaire CEO of a health insurance company.
The authorities got the wrong guy so I'm going to keep going.
There's no point in organizing because that just makes us easier to stop before we begin. Also, there's a 0% chance we can trust the people in such an organization because there will always be scumbags and morons eager to support their oppressors.
Posting this is a great way to get your house searched by the authorities.
Sounds like something that would happen in a fascist regime.
https://youtu.be/rZFxZmDNlV8
The Trump regime is a terrorist organization and should be treated as such.
The only way they could be more of a threat to us is if they were literally holding guns to our heads. And we may not be far off from that.
They are America's enemies. They are democracy's enemies.
Depending on the skin colour, you're already there.
I do genuinely wonder if America can survive this perfect storm of idiotic fascism.
They haven't had real dialog about real issues in 10 years. Time flies doesn't it. It was dead the moment they entered the Trump era. This idiotic fascism era.
I don't see how they're bringing 1/3rd to 2/3rds the population back to reality. It was over when that half the country reneged on the social contract.
It's pretty grim here.
The other day I watched Contagion, and it was so alien and comforting to see governmental organizations make a consistently rational response to a crisis, rather than they themselves manufacture the crisis.
We'll survive. It'll just be a shithole.
North Korea exists. It's a shithole.
Sudan exists. It's a shithole.
Iran exists. It's a shithole.
We're just gonna be another shithole.
Makes surviving not something one would envy tho
It doesn't get any more 1984 than the government banning words they think are icky.
Climate unaliving
Ecological sewer slide
Classic ministry of truth
I remember ten years ago you'd get mocked if you went round calling everything Orwellian, but it's crazy the sheer degree with which the GOP are using it as a guidebook.
Because the old "$2.99 looks more like 2 dollars than 3 dollars" works on the masses they discovered that through social fuckery and behaviourism they are able to make us think and do almost anything. Fuck this bullshit. Let's find the warm sun again and start building a future and leave all of this power crap behind.
LoL, we're not gonna have anything but the "warm" sun in the near future.
Y'all upset about all this... orbital heating? We really should reduce the amount of gassy leakages from cars and cows.
Too many car farts makes air go hot hot.
Can't wait for press conferences from these officials to be stripped down to Kevin's level.
Ah yes Free Speech
Free speech (conservative newspeak): Calling black people the N-word and not receiving any social backlash.
Enemies of humankind
“Freeze peach” and all that.
what did peach do to deserve being frozen?
climate.nasa.gov still works, for now.
Shhh don't tell them
Good point.
Back to global warming?
World-wide uncoldification.
Planetary abuse repercussions is a more accurate label, I say let's use that in place.
The problem is that changing the name makes it much harder for people to find and collate evidence.
What else is there to say but arm the workers
Organize the workers. Many are already armed but it doesn't help without organization.
Yes, Meshtastic may be very basic and limited, but now might be the time to set up a node or two while it's still possible.
Tech is the easy part. Building social capital is the hard part. That takes talking to people, face-to-face.
Agreed. We won't tech our way out of fascism but the tech could be useful. Local organization is the thing, offline.
Wouldn't it be easier to just ban all reports, period? Problem solved.
That's phase 2 of the republicans plan
Don't you use the word emission quite a bit in nuclear?
Now they're just immigrant protons.
And aren't ground wires green?
Global hotting
Gonna make it illegal to look up next?
Can’t believe you cut the other half out
As someone who read the book and is hunting down an original for less than 8 thousand euros, I can safely say that this would definitely be in the book.
8000 euros for a book??☠️💀
First print from 1949, good condition. Pristine condition is 16k 💀
I've read it! Or have I? There's a lot of discussion around it, but I listened to the audiobook, so I'll let you decide for yourself, but at least I know the full story.
Assholes have never even heard of a thesaurus. Plus, we now have AI at our backs. Behold, what ChatGPT ginned up for me a second ago:
I get that this works as long as they're willing to play by the rules they set. But if it comes down to getting the word out, and silencing science that could save lives, it's worth trying.
1984 Much???
When you ignore a problem, it goes away.
Dark future.
So would it now be considered acceptable to use something like " [INSERT FIRM] passed gas to the amount of [BLANK] tons over [PERIOD OF TIME] "
It sure would make reports a hell of alot more interesting.
When I grow up and become president I’m gonna ban homework and vegetables!
"What colour should we paint this wall?"
"[REDACTED]"