Dystopian fiction novels are supposed to be cautionary tales, not instruction manuals.
The current regime claiming to represent California seems to want to combine the abuse and misuse of language from George Orwell’s 1984, and the lessons about government control of the economy as featured in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
In 1984, the totalitarian regime, reffered to as The Party, uses language manipulation to control the people. Newspeak is the language constructed from the top down, subject to constant changes as to slowly eliminate independent thought. Doublethink, allows people to hold two contradictory thoughts at once, such as “War is Peace,” and “Freedom is Slavery,” both which are also examples of the prolific use of propaganda in the novel. Anything that contridicts the Party’s current propoganda and ideology is subject to elimination via the Memory Hole. While California is still far from a 1984-esque totalitarian state, the current regime that dominates the state, Wokism, is a totalitarian ideology that’s the bastard child of the original Progressive era and Blank Slatism. Tools though used by the Woke regime extend to emotional abuse and language games.
In Atlas Shrugged, the government (looters) punishes productive people (producers) by elevating and protecting fellow looters via a long list of rules and regulations. As the novel progresses the regulations snowball while prosperity comes to a stop. Naturally, it’s the State or associated cronies who make the decisions “on behalf” of the people and it’s industry incumbents, usually incompetent ones, who demand such laws ultimately to keep them in business. The Equalization of Opportunity Bill prohibited “hoarding” of various businesses by the same owner. Then there was the Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog which allege to prevent “destrictive competition” between railroads, but was really a government-backed entity to protect incompetent incumbant railroads from open competition. Directive 10-289, enabled under a “national emergency” prohibited individuals from changing or quitting their jobs, froze production, prices and wages, suspension of intellectual property protection, and mandates on how much money individuals can spend including minimum requirements. Atlas Shrugged has examples of oil and gas shortages, electricity blackouts, unaffordable energy prices, and energy rationing and it’s no wonder that Rand had plenty to say during the energy crisis of the 70s and 80s (also discussed in my Fossil Fool series). California hasn’t sunk completely into Atlas Shrugged territory (yet), but the parallels are developing.
Consider this spot (yes, it’s best to watch it) from the state’s new Director of the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, a new bureaucracy created by SBx 1-2 and signed into law earlier this year by the Chief Imbecile, Gavin Newsom to allegedly address the state’s high gasoline prices.
Hi, I’m Tai Milder.
I’m leading California’s Division of Petroleum Market Oversight. We’re the new independent watchdog, the first in the nation, commited to protecting you, the consumer from unfair gas prices.
And we have the power to act. If the industry doesn’t cooperate, we can use supoenas to uncover the truth.
We’re building a team of investigators, analyists, economists, and attorneys.
Our approach is simple: analyze market behavior, investigate anomolies, and if necessary, refer cases for prosecution.
We’ll continue to follow the facts and ask as simple question: Are consumers getting ripped off?
If the answer is yes, we will act to demand accountability, and bring relief to Californians.
The 1984-style language abuse is all over Milder’s little speech as is the overall intent for a cabal of government bureaucrats, led by a creep (
warned us!1) with zero industry experience, to regulate “Big Oil’s” alleged market manipulation.
Such “unfair gas price spikes” and “price gouging” conveniently only take place in a geographical area on the West Coast of the US that’s shaped identical to that of California. Strange that adding more and more State control, just as done in Atlas Shrugged results in a snowball effect of higher prices for consumers.
If Milder’s new entity of parasitic bullies were at all serious, they’d look in the mirror as CA Government is source of most of the State’s problems along with the subsequent ripoff of Californians via theft of their labor. They’d also do well to look at the effect such a heavy regulatory environment imposes on small and medium sized businesses in the oil and gas industry who often have a difficult time doing business in the state compared to large legacy, so-called “Big Oil.”
The Island of California
California’s crude oil relies on in-state extraction and importation mostly via tankers from Alaska and foreign countries. The state lack interstate crude oil pipelines to transport crude from the lower 48 or Canada.
The state has special formulations of gasoline and uses summer blends for a longer period of the year than do other parts of the country. Both are more costly to produce than conventional gasoline or winter blend.
These special formulations of gasoline are generally produced only in the state’s refineries. Out of state refineries can also process the products, at greater expense and with longer lead time.
In-state refineries risk breakdowns, flat out closure, or conversion to renewable diesel faculties. All three decrease the state’s total capacity to refine special CA gasoline which raises prices for consumers.
Great piece!
The parallels you’re seeing are the same that I’ve been seeing in US banking laws, regulations and regulatory policy since January 2020.
It’s caused me to reengineer my knowledge of banking statutes and regulatory policy of the past two decades, and what I’ve started to conclude isn’t pleasant.
Really nice article...
So glad I'm no longer a Californian. Great while it lasted.
California's insurance commissioner, another creep with no industry experience (He's gay though), has caused most of the major insurance companies to stop writing policies in CA. Now people are struggling to get home insurance, and the state is stepping in to provide insurance coverage. Part of the plan?
California's refinery situation is so tight, that a bump at any refinery causes price increases. If this doofus causes one large refinery to close with his investigations, California is in a perpetual shortage, with attendant high prices. This could go bad very quickly.
The California Air Resources Board has caused the high prices and shortages with their insane rules, and the only way to fix it is to establish another bureaucracy to punish the victims.