unfortunately, it's not progress he is holding up, but solutions to climate change that is going to be irreversibly damage our planet within even Trump's lifetime.
I have no problem criticizing Trump’s motives or his shaky grasp of science—but misrepresenting the data on wind energy only weakens the argument. Today’s wind turbines bear no resemblance to the windmills of centuries past, and their ecological impacts aren’t being concealed. Bird and bat mortality estimates are out in the open and well documented. The numbers are striking: approximately 4–11 birds and 12–19 bats per megawatt per year, with the highest risks occurring during migration.
This, however, puts that in proper context. “Wind turbines cause far fewer bird deaths than other human activities, such as collisions with buildings (hundreds of millions annually) or communication towers (millions annually). Climate change driven by fossil fuels is a major threat, with estimates suggesting millions of bird deaths annually, making wind energy less impactful overall.” Source: Google AI
Brilliant parallel drawing here! The key insight about Quixote not hallucinatingbut reinterpreting what's plainly visible is the piece that often gets lost. The data tracking those 50+ windmill attacks really underscores how sustained and strategic this messaging is rather than random ranting. I remember reading Cervantes in grad school and thinking the satire had aged out, but the core dynamic of refusing modernity by fabricating an enemy is clearly timeless. Modern infrastructure can't be the villain in someone's hero story, so it gets transformed into one.
Outstanding paralell here. The distinction between hallucination and willful refusal to accept reality gets at somethng deeper than most 'tilting at windmills' references capture. I never thought about how Cervantes likely picked windmills specifically because they were cutting-edge infrastructure in his time, which makes the whole metaphor sharper. Quixote's logic that facts only prove teh conspiracy goes deeper is exactly what I've seen play out in real-time arguments where evidence somehow becomes part of the plot.
unfortunately, it's not progress he is holding up, but solutions to climate change that is going to be irreversibly damage our planet within even Trump's lifetime.
I have no problem criticizing Trump’s motives or his shaky grasp of science—but misrepresenting the data on wind energy only weakens the argument. Today’s wind turbines bear no resemblance to the windmills of centuries past, and their ecological impacts aren’t being concealed. Bird and bat mortality estimates are out in the open and well documented. The numbers are striking: approximately 4–11 birds and 12–19 bats per megawatt per year, with the highest risks occurring during migration.
This, however, puts that in proper context. “Wind turbines cause far fewer bird deaths than other human activities, such as collisions with buildings (hundreds of millions annually) or communication towers (millions annually). Climate change driven by fossil fuels is a major threat, with estimates suggesting millions of bird deaths annually, making wind energy less impactful overall.” Source: Google AI
Well done. Small point:,Don Quixote wasn’t a liar. Trump is.
I suspect the uptick in 2025 is due to Project 2025, since energy is a big part of it.
Brilliant parallel drawing here! The key insight about Quixote not hallucinatingbut reinterpreting what's plainly visible is the piece that often gets lost. The data tracking those 50+ windmill attacks really underscores how sustained and strategic this messaging is rather than random ranting. I remember reading Cervantes in grad school and thinking the satire had aged out, but the core dynamic of refusing modernity by fabricating an enemy is clearly timeless. Modern infrastructure can't be the villain in someone's hero story, so it gets transformed into one.
Outstanding paralell here. The distinction between hallucination and willful refusal to accept reality gets at somethng deeper than most 'tilting at windmills' references capture. I never thought about how Cervantes likely picked windmills specifically because they were cutting-edge infrastructure in his time, which makes the whole metaphor sharper. Quixote's logic that facts only prove teh conspiracy goes deeper is exactly what I've seen play out in real-time arguments where evidence somehow becomes part of the plot.