Authoritarianism: Good for the Environment!

This is sort of hilarious — and completely depressing. MotherJones environmental blogger Jennifer Phillips looks upon China’s authoritarianism favorably … at least when deployed in service of policies she likes. In a post titled "If China Can Ban Plastic Bags, Why Can’t We?" she writes:

Communist governments may be oppressive to American eyes, but they do have the power to make sweeping environmental changes. Key example: China.

Translation: Oppression, not so bad after all!

There’s a really ugly strain of environmentalism that pines for the sort of sweeping, centralized controls seen in authoritarian countries like China — never mind the millions of people who’ve been killed or imprisoned during the decades of oppression there. This doesn’t mean that we should never work with or interact with the country — there are times when we should! — but we should never sanction acts of authoritarianism as a good thing.