Survey: Was I Out of Line?

[c9]

Situation: A non-close friend emails me, several of my friends, and several of his friends, with the current "boycott the gas companies" chain letter that's going around, encouraging a boycott to push gas to a cheaper price. I Reply All, with a short but polite rant about it not helping, and introducing the concept of Peak Oil. Acquaintance "really resents" my use of his email list. I apologize for his discomfort, and ignore all responses to my email (despite really wanting to get into it).

Full response text:

Sorry everyone, but I'm really happy to see high gas prices, and you should be too. Here's why:

- the world is running out of oil
- the air is being destroyed by smog from your cars and SUVs!
- and yet we still pay less for gas than we do for bottled water.

Many scientists agree that the world has reached what's called "Peak Oil," which means we've used up half the oil on the planet. Consumption is still growing 2% per year, which means we all have to think up *replacements* for oil, not protests. When it's gone, it's gone.

More info: http://www.thesharpener.net/?p=41

Cam

Emotions: I'm really pissed off by his response, but because of that mood I know better than to write back and fight him.

Questions: Did I do wrong? Did I react correctly in the end? What would you have done?

Why didn't I just ignore it? Because I've found that in the past few years I've gotten less and less activist and caring, and I ignore things too much. I miss being strongly in favour of or against things, and actually pushing viewpoints and debating things. Those debates drive leapfish round the bend, I'm certain. :-)

Comments

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

Digression from your point, but on topic:

Funny, I just had a conversation about whether or not to be happy about higher gas prices earlier today.

On one hand, I like that prices in North American are starting to reflect what gas really costs so that people here might start looking to other forms of transportation/energy.

On the other hand, I'm really annoyed that the result of the higher cost is to line the pockets of oil execs - it's not that getting gas to North America is really getting this much more expensive. All of the subsides are still in place as far as I know. (If I’m wrong here, let me know.)

On the third hand, as someone who lives 12miles from her place of employment and does not have a good public transportation option, and really doesn’t want to move to the ‘burbs I’m thinking more and more of buying a Smart/Prius/something that doesn’t cost $3 to drive to work and back each day.

[c9.livejournal.com]

One person wrote back to call me arrogant for not thinking of the poor and downtrodden who can't afford x y and z. I guess it comes down to long term or short term thinking a bit.

[roosterbear.livejournal.com]

I am very much with you on the first and second hand. (If gub'ment were smart, the higher price would be the result of higher taxes, both helping to shrink the deficit and motivating people to look for alternatives to their SUVs, in a sense easing the transition to running out of oil. But I digress.) On the third hand, I sympathize, but it doesn't apply to me since I am jobless. Even though I do use my car, I fill the tank maybe once a month. I know that I am lucky in that respect.

As far as the original question, I've tried to come up with a way to say this that doesn't sound totally harsh but I can't. This is the closest I could come: I think that maybe it was a little excessive to hit "reply-all" but I don't think it's wrong. He started the whole thing by opening the discussion, and if he is so fragile that he can't take a differing viewpoint then maybe he should keep his spammy chainletter emails opinions to himself. Just a thought. Actually, I am in total agreement with the content of your reply.