Which forced the worse than useless CFL upon a public who immediately associated "environmentally friendly " with "enemy of the people".
And any general will tell you once you have lost hearts and minds, losing the war will follow
The trouble with these things is a replacement is found and people say "that'll do" waaaay too early. And the conspiracy theorist in me wonders who stands to gain from a shoddy replacement that fails against the requirements of basic functionality?
Hanlons Razor, remember.
However the reasons are less important than the outcomes. And here the outcome was to reinforce the (perceived ?) disconnect between those that would "rule" us, and those that have to suffer these idiots.
And that outcome is why this thread is discussing President Trump, not President Harris.
Brexit was a similar outcome for the UK. A population that felt largely hectored by a rather detached elite.
Notice I say "felt". Peoples connection to reality is all about "da feelz" This is how populism works.
Returning to paper straws (what ? Again ?! Is this a Stewart Lee routine ?). Maybe in isolation they could have worked. But added to the dual flush disaster and the lightbulb lunacy, and you start building a narrative that the gulf between government and people is growing and not in favour of the people. Lightbulbs are a paradigm because not only were they crap. They were obscenely expensive compared to the tried and tested incandescent ones. Again feeding a narrative of a rich elite dictating to a downtrodden populace.
Now for all my pissedoffness, I'm not so fucking stupid as to say yes to fascism. But even saying that will push the narrative of the elite. And as we now see, many people had far less worries. Which is indicative of people who frankly care more about tomorrow than next week.
None of this is news.