Letters to the Editor

Lies passed as opinions

In spite of all his “what abouts,” George Altemose does raise an important concern in his Jan. 19 letter [“Not only Santos economical with the truth”] about U.S. Rep. George Santos [R-NY3] and others: truth vs. falsehood. If we can’t tell one from the other, we’re in big trouble. It seems we’ve reached a point where factual truth simply doesn’t matter. In former White House aide Kellyanne Conway’s notorious phrase, if the facts are inconvenient, they’re simply replaced with more politically convenient “alternative facts.” These used to be called “lies.” Now they pass as “opinions.”

Here’s a small sample of “alternative facts” far more consequential than whether President Joe Biden [D] ever drove a tractor trailer or whether Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-MA] has any Native American blood — which, incidentally, the letter writer gets wrong in asserting “DNA testing showed otherwise.”

Former President Donald Trump [R] won the 2020 election: There’s not a shred of evidence which stands up to scrutiny to support this falsehood. Nonetheless it’s still believed by millions of Americans. As a consequence, our Capitol was invaded on Jan. 6, 2021, by an angry mob that embraced it. This mob attempted to subvert our democracy by preventing the constitutional peaceful transfer of power, and to impose its will by force, based on this lie.

QAnon: Is the world run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles — not coincidentally all Democrats — operating out of the basement of a certain pizzeria in Washington, D.C. (which pizzeria does not actually have a basement?) Do I really need to debunk this? In spite of being self-evidently ludicrous, millions of Americans believe it.

The “great replacement” theory: One recent survey shows a third of Americans believe there’s a plot to replace white Christian Americans with non-white immigrants for electoral gain. Another survey had nearly 70% of Republicans agreeing with the central tenets of this “theory.” Instead of seeing illegal immigration as a chaotic process driven by war, violence, oppression and poverty, believers in this notion see it as a conspiracy organized by Democrats, Jews or shadowy left-wing elites.

Once a fringe idea, originating with the European anti-Semitic right, it’s been mainstreamed thanks to its relentless popularization by media personalities like Tucker Carlson on Fox News and politicians such as U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik [R-NY21] and Sen. J. D. Vance [R-OH]. It’s an invitation to violence: the murderers at the mass shootings in Buffalo, the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., were all influenced by it.

Sandy Hook was a hoax staged by paid actors to justify taking away people’s guns: Even after a noncontrite Alex Jones was ordered, upon being convicted of defamation, to pay $473 million in punitive damages for the suffering he caused parents of the murdered children by broadcasting this lie, his Infowars website still averages over 300,000 viewers daily. It’s not like he’s got no defenders, or that everyone is so disgusted by this rank lie that his credibility has been reduced to zero.

Santos is a symptom of a deeper pathology in our body politic: a culture of lying. And much as I’d love to appear nonpartisan by claiming that both political parties are equally at fault, that wouldn’t be the truth either. The Democrats aren’t choir boys, but the really big lies are embraced and spread by the reactionary faction which has seized control of the Republican Party. In spite of the letter writer equating Santos with some Democrats, there’s a huge difference: Santos is a fraud, from top to bottom.

David Friedman St. James

EVs include benefits, too

Mark Sertoff’s letter in TBR News Media newspapers on Jan. 19 [“No electric car for me”] gave many arguments why he would not buy an electric vehicle. He is correct that EVs are heavier than gas vehicles because the weight of the battery is larger than the weight of a fuel tank, and this does lead to increased tire wear. But he is incorrect about brake wear. One of the great ways that EVs save energy is regenerative braking, that uses the motor as a generator to put the energy of the moving car back into the battery for reuse. Brakes in EVs last far longer than for gasoline cars because they are used only for emergency braking, and the regeneration greatly improves the efficiency of the vehicle, especially in stop-and-go traffic.

The cost of driving an electric car vs. a gas car depends on the prices of electricity and gasoline. Electric cars typically go approximately 3 miles per kWhour, while gas cars go to approximately 30 miles per gallon. Electricity at night (from PSEG rate booklet) is 6 cents per kWh, so this is 2 cents per mile. If gas is $3 per gallon, then for a gas car it is 10 cents per mile.

Sertoff brings up other issues that pertain to many of the materials needed in modern society. All mining should comply with safety and labor guidelines and laws, and this is not an issue that is specific to EVs. Fracking to extract oil and gas also pollutes and can even cause earthquakes, so fossil fuels have their issues also. Proper recycling of lithium car batteries needs to be done and is the focus of many new companies. Batteries can catch fire, but so can fuel tanks. Statistics from Tesla state that there are 55 gasoline car fires for 1 billion miles driven, but only five EV car fires for the same distance driven. Batteries in EVs are temperature controlled and have warranties of at least 100,000 miles or eight years.

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act includes money to speed the transition to EVs, tax incentives to install heat pumps for heating homes, and funding for long-distance transmission lines to efficiently carry energy from regions that have excess renewable energy to places that need it. The 50% increase in grid capacity that is needed is comparable to the increases that were made when air conditioning of homes became more prevalent. This transition will take place over time, so that utilities can upgrade their equipment as it is needed. The blackouts in Texas were because the local power authority did not require winterization of generation equipment. The blackouts in California were caused by extremely dry conditions — a result of global warming — so that power lines through forested areas could not be used because of fire danger.

To slow and reverse the warming of the planet, the world must change its reliance on fossil fuels. Electric cars still have issues, such as long trips requiring planning for charging and they have been expensive, but as these problems get solved, they are becoming excellent choices for many people, especially if you can charge in your garage every night and never visit a gas station.

Gene Sprouse Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Stony Brook University and Editor in Chief, Emeritus, American Physical Society

The opinions of columnists and letter writers are their own. They do not speak for the newspaper.