Air conditioning, dishwashers, and gas stoves are on the wrong side of history.

Gas Stove Bans: The Latest Culture War

It seems like every time there’s a new campaign to stop climate change or enhance safety, leftists float some outrageous invasion into personal freedom. And when conservatives react with indignation, the media gaslights the country, casting critics as a reactionary cabal itching to start a “culture war.”

But is it really just a conspiracy theory that a Biden appointee to the Consumer Product Safety Commissioner, Richard Trumka Jr., probably told Bloomberg News that gas stoves were a “hidden hazard” and “any option is on the table”? And then argued that the state could ban anything that “can’t be made safe” — which includes ladders, bikes, candy bars, cars, forks, desks, bathtubs, and televisions, and so on.

Don’t be a hysteric; no one is going to take away your straws or light bulbs or combustible engines. Or are they?

The Gas Stove Denialists

The New York Times assures its readers that “No, Biden Is Not Trying to Ban Gas Stoves.” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes calls the GOP “freak out” over the government “coming for your gas stoves” “outright nonsense.” But all the pseudoscience says that gas stoves are basically mini Chernobyls that are killing your children as we speak — especially minority children. And if you disagree, you might be one of those “Gas Stove Denialists.”

As NPR notes, gas stoves became part of the culture war in less than a week. Time Magazine explains how gas stoves became the latest right-wing cause in the culture wars. The Washington Post claims that the “GOP thrusts gas stoves, Biden’s green agenda into the culture wars.” But the “culture war” can never be instigated by leftists suddenly shifting societal norms but only by social conservatives who pick needless fights over piddling, long-decided issues.

Gas stove bans will one day make their way onto the DNC platform. The case for it just needs to be calibrated, euphemized, and normalized. When that happens, we’ll be thrust into a pedantic debate over the real meaning of the word “ban.” Aren’t we just talking about safety regulations and fighting climate change, after all? Soon, anyone who utters the word “ban” will be fact-checked into compliance, and what was recently a crazy conservative “freak-out” will be reborn a common-sense consumer protection that only heartless child-hating climate-denying, white-supremacist types oppose.

The Biden Administration’s Counterintuitive Policy Initiatives

As Christian Britschgi in Reason points out, the Biden administration “has proposed tightening energy efficiency standards for 16 product categories, including many home appliances. The DOE has opened or finalized rules on microwave ovens, normal ovens, refrigerators, and laundry machines in just the last few months.” The Biden administration’s counterintuitive policy initiatives ensure that you’ll be compelled to buy crappier appliances at higher prices.

You’re on the wrong side of history; they’ll tell you — the one with air conditioners, real cars, gas stoves, affordable dishwashers, and modernity.

About the Author

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a nationally syndicated columnist, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books—the most recent, Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent. Follow him on Twitter, @davidharsanyi.