this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025
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[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

The very last electric appliances to be turned off should be residential AC units

I don't think a mostly for-comfort utility should be the last to shut down. There is a lot of significantly more important shit, like hospitals, water treatment plants and pumping stations, coolers and freezers which are storing food, public transit, etc.

After all, our species has survived without AC for hundreds of thousands of years, but surviving without running water or safe food is much more difficult.

Even some datacenters can be more important, e.g. those predicting the weather or handling communications.

And if AC is necessary for survival in a place, then maybe we shouldn't fuckin' settle there (or at least shouldn't cover the entire place with asphalt and concrete). What happens during a real blackout? Does everyone just die?

[–] john_brown@hexbear.net 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I don't think a mostly for-comfort utility should be the last to shut down.

at-risk people die without A/C when it's 100F and 95% humidity.

And if AC is necessary for survival in a place, then maybe we shouldn't fuckin' settle there (or at least shouldn't cover the entire place with asphalt and concrete).

People settled there because A/C became available. You can't just shut off the A/C and cackle while the elderly and infirm die of heat stroke.

What happens during a real blackout? Does everyone just die?

people do pretty much every time it happens due to hurricanes in Texas, yes.

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People settled there because A/C became available

Yeah, but like, don't. Or at least cover your house with solar. If you need a literal life support system and are dependent on a centralized power grid for that with no backup, you will die.

You can’t just shut off the A/C and cackle while the elderly and infirm die of heat stroke.

I agree that in places like that AC should be among the critical systems which are the last to shut down, but it's also important to note that the vast majority of inhabited places on earth are not like that (yet).

[–] john_brown@hexbear.net 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, but like, don't. Or at least cover your house with solar. If you need a literal life support system and are dependent on a centralized power grid for that with no backup, you will die.

Sorry gramma, a lemmitor said you shouldn't have been born in the armpit of america, so you're going to have to either die when power shuts down or drop everything and move.

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

you’re going to have to either die when power shuts down or drop everything and move.

That's not my opinion, that's a sad fact of life. If you can't move, get a backup electricity supply. Blackouts happen.

[–] john_brown@hexbear.net 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

bootstraps liberalism strikes again

[–] Enjoyer_of_Games@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago

hrrhrrm can we please retain civility and refocus our attention on the 3 vs 5 tits debate at hand lemmitor

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Nah, it's colonial settlers living in a place where they shouldn't, and then capitalists plastering everything with heat-absorbing asphalt because it's more profitable to force people into car-centric hellholes. If you are unfortunate enough to live in a place like that, prepare a backup power source, because it's not feasible to build a power grid which never has blackouts.

Of course, it would be nice to have a government that would provide everyone in such regions with backup electricity sources, but that ain't happening with capitalists in power, and recommending that grandma should lead a communist uprising is not that helpful

[–] axont@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

How am I supposed to prepare a backup generator

I rent an apartment because it's what I can afford

[–] john_brown@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago

You just need to take a firm grip on your bootstraps and lift, clearly

[–] john_brown@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago

"it's not that thing you said, it's just that you need to pick yourself up by your bootstraps"

[–] DefinitelyNotAPhone@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nothing says good socialist political instincts quite like leaving a bunch of bunch of working class people to die of heatstroke because they had the audacity to be born in the southeastern US and then whitewashing that by calling them settlers despite a third of them being descended from slaves.

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago

It is interesting watching someone from outside leftist spaces try to co-opt leftist language. They use the words right, but they don't realise that the meaning behind the words is what is important.

[–] P1d40n3@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

You must be lost. This is hexbear where we shit in the toilet, not on our big balls. We believe in the power of love, but not the power of being a smarmy wpos.

I bet you don't even eat beanis.

I don't think a mostly for-comfort utility should be the last to shut down

I don't think

mostly for for-comfort

should

Pretty sure this entire line which began and summarizes your whole comment is literally 100% opinions, and they're your opinions.

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

After all, our species has survived without AC for hundreds of thousands of years,

What's climate change

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The human species has lived through an era when the average temperature on Earth was about the same as it is now. It's true that (very) soon it won't be the case (it looks like the climate is truly fucked and we'll get the hottest year since humans evolved in a decade or so, and then shoot right past that and into real hell on earth territory).

[–] take_five_moments@hexbear.net 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, I also wanted to mention that AC in critical workplaces, schools and kindergartens should also be given priority over residential AC, but the comment was already too long.

[–] ClimateStalin@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago

Obviously I’m oversimplifying to an extent. There are obviously essential services that should be prioritized over residential areas, but my point is that most business uses should be lower priority than residential.

Also AC saves lives. Every time there’s a big blackout during a heatwave people die. Especially the elderly.

I agree that we shouldn’t have people living in those places, Texas and Florida should be permanently evacuated. But currently people do live there and I’d rather they not die.