Pete Buttigieg Slams EV Luddites

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On the path of new tech adoption, different types of people adopt the new tech at different times. Some need more time to get used to the idea, while others jump in quickly and eagerly, perhaps even well before a “normal person” even hears about the new tech. As more and more of society adopts the new tech, there are two ways one could communicate with people slower to open up to it: you can take the handholding approach, or you can shame and make fun of them. In most cases, it seems obvious the former approach is better. However … in some cases, you’ve just got to go with door #2.

Regarding today’s story, note that we’re dealing with technology important to stopping pollution and climate change, and there’s a longstanding, ludicrously funded effort by the fossil fuel industry to discredit it, scare people away from it, make it a political controversy, and kill its growth. We’re talking about electric vehicles, of course. Sometimes you’ve just got to drag people who are obviously trying to obstruct progress and oppose EV adoption. That’s the approach U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently took in an appearance on Fox News. However, in Buttigieg’s usual style, he did it in a smooth, clever way.

Defending the Biden administration’s strongly pro-EV policies, “I feel like it’s the early 2000s and I’m talking to some people who think we can just have landline phones forever.”

It turns out Pete Buttigieg and I are the same age, and this is a bit of a funny comparison for me. In the early 2000s, I was convinced I’d never have a cell phone — because I saw no need for one. Yes, I was apparently a tech-adoption luddite at that time, and it stings a little bit (only a little bit) that Buttigieg is comparing anti-EV nutjobs on Fox News to me, but I’ll take one for the team.

Importantly and correctly, like a common CleanTechnica reader (maybe Pete is one), he also noted that “the automotive sector is moving toward EVs, and we can’t pretend otherwise.” Indeed — whether you want to be an anti-progress addict to dirty fossil fuels or not, the auto industry is moving forward. There are segments of the industry that could certainly move faster, but everyone knows which direction we’re going in.

Many Democrats are not willing to go on Fox News, because they know their words will be twisted, they will be asked leading questions aimed at misinforming and tarnishing, and there is little chance of having the time to talk about something important in a useful way. However, Buttigieg has long been happy to get on Fox, mentally and verbally spar with the biased entertainers known as hosts, and cleverly get helpful messages out to people who are unlikely to have been exposed to them. I do think it’s the right approach and he’s especially talented at doing it. But will he actually change minds on EVs and other topics? Who knows? It’s a tough audience when they receive such a bombardment of biased cherry picking, misinformation, and social cues from the channel on a regular basis as well as in their daily lives and communities. Nonetheless, I love it.