Bring It on Home

In The Far Middle episode 142, Nick once again starts the discussion with a sports dedication honoring an athlete whose accomplishments extend beyond sports. This installment’s honoree is the late Pat Tillman. While recognizing Tillman’s football achievements, Nick focuses on Tillman’s service and principles. Nick describes Tillman as an exemplar of a great American doing exceptional things throughout his very unique life. Nick then shifts the discussion back to his recent video series, “A Rational Thinker’s Guide to Climate Change and Related Policies.” Nick brings home his commentary spanning the prior two Far Middle episodes, and further examines his arguments from the concluding chapter of the series, “Forces Driving Present Climate Policies.” Those forces driving climate policies today can be best categorized as external and internal; with external coming from outside the United States, and internal being pressures and influences within the United States and West. Examining external forces, Nick covers OPEC, dynamics between Russia and Europe, Venezuela's aggression towards Guyana, and of course, China who “clearly is the biggest single example of who benefits the most with respect to climate policies and net zero journeys to really bad places.” Then there’s the internal driver of present climate policies. And the “best way to define it is as the Left within the West itself, whether it's the United States or Europe,” says Nick. “The Left at the end of the day, more than anything, despises the individual and specifically disdains the freedom of the individual to choose for themselves.” Nick proceeds to highlight several trends that are justified as “tackling climate change,” but at their core, they're about curtailing individual rights and greater control over individual choice. Examples today span what you can eat and drink, driving and EV mandates, 15-minute cities, and climate policy bleeding into government use of emergency powers. Nick rambles on with a final music segment, as he pays tribute to Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin II album. Led Zeppelin II would mark the band’s first UK No. 1 album—a milestone occurring today, 34 years ago. For more Led Zeppelin commentary, check out Nick’s reflection on Led Zeppelin IV and Physical Graffiti.